Australian religious extremist Musa Cerantonio is likely to be deported from the Philippines to Australia within days after police found no evidence linking him to terror groups in the country.
Philippine police said they had been closely monitoring the Melbourne-born convert from Christianity to Islam since February.
There was “no evidence linking him to any terror act”, said Prudencio Banas, the commander of police on the resort island of Cebu where Mr Cerantonio was arrested on Friday.
Mr Cerantino was arrested in the possession of 11 sim cards, including an Optus card from Australia, which Philippine police are investigating.
He was also in the possession of three mobile telephones and two computer memory cards.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop on Monday branded Mr Cerantonio, 29, a “fraud” after he claimed to be fighting in the Middle East when he was living in a one-bedroom apartment in Cebu with a Filipino woman.
“It seems that he is just a fraud, because he was saying that he was fighting in Syria and Iraq when all the time he was holed up in the Philippines,” Ms Bishop told Sky News. “So presumably he’s a fraud who has tried to dupe people into dangerous activity. What happens to him next is a matter for the authorities.”
Philippine police said Mr Cerantonio would be deported to Australia because Canberra had cancelled his passport, making him an illegal alien in the country. Australian officials were expected to arrange a temporary travel document so he could be to flown to Australia.
No arrest warrants for Mr Cerantonio’s arrest had been issued in Australia but he would presumably be a person of interest for Australian Federal Police.
Police declined to comment.
Mr Cerantonio had been vociferous in his support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the extremist Islamist group waging war in Iraq and Syria.
He was being held at an immigration facility inside a military camp in Manila.
