Philippines arrests celebrity pastor Apollo Quiboloy, also wanted in US, for sex crimes

An influential evangelist preacher from the Philippines accused of sex trafficking and sexual abuse has been arrested, the interior minister said on Sunday.

Apollo Quiboloy, self-proclaimed “owner of the universe” and “appointed son of god”, is wanted on charges of child and sexual abuse and related allegations of human trafficking. He has denied wrongdoing.

“Apollo Quiboloy has been caught,” Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jnr said on his Facebook page, without specifying how or where he had been caught.

The pastor, who is in his 70s, is also on the FBI’s “most wanted” list in the United States on separate charges of sex trafficking and bulk cash smuggling, over which he has also denied wrongdoing.

Over 2,000 police were deployed last month to search a sprawling compound in the southern city of Davao owned by Quiboloy’s church, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), on suspicion that he was hiding there in a bunker.