Quiboloy lawyer calls human rights abuse allegations ‘grandstanding by US gov't’

The legal counsel of Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder and pastor Apollo Carreon Quiboloy on Saturday dismissed the US Department of the Treasury-Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC's) allegations of serious human rights abuses.

At a press conference, Atty. Manny Medrano said the US Treasury Department's statement was “outrageous grandstanding and utter politics by the US government.”

“This document presents an act as if the pastor has been convicted. They are mere allegations that we submit are false and they are not true. The pastor has not been convicted of anything and that is why this is so outrageous, based on mere allegations,” Medrano said.

Medrano said the document also maligned the good name of Quiboloy, who he said dedicated his entire life to God, his community, and fellow-men worldwide.

“I am an American. I love my country. But today, I am embarrassed. How can a country like the US, with that rich history of protecting rights and due process, issue a press release like this?”  he said.

In a statement, the US Department of the Treasury said Quiboloy was among the over 40 individuals and entities that were sanctioned due to their supposed connection to corruption or human rights abuse across nine countries.

The OFAC cited a report of a female who supposedly was forced to have sex with Quiboloy, at least once a week even when she was a minor and in every country they visited. She said she lost count of the number of times the act happened.

The OFAC also alleged Quiboloy had subjected pastorals and other KOJC members to other forms of physical abuse, including personally beating the victims and sending them to “Upper Six,” a walled compound used solely for punishment.

Filipino lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, also a legal counsel of Quiboloy, echoed Medrano’s statements, saying that the document was “truly unprecedented.”

Topacio hoped there were “judicial recourses” for the pastor.

“I am confident with the quality of legal representation the pastor has, this injustice will be set right at soonest possible time,” he said.

He also said that he had reservations about the constitutionality of the Magnitsky Act.

The Treasury Department had implemented the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows US officials to sanction foreign government officials accused of human rights violations.

Under the sanction, all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC.

Asked what the legal team intended to do, another Quiboloy legal counsel, Atty. Michael Jay Green, said, “There is nothing to do and not giving the article the attention it needs.”

“I am not even giving them credit on this junk but if this was close to a trial and this was published in our country and it was on the eve of a trial, [there] will be a very very serious problem with this,” he said.

Green also said that they have witnesses that can absolve Quiboloy of the allegations. However, they may be arrested for “conspiracy” if they enter the US.

“We have witnesses. We cannot force them to come back to the US so they can testify against the things that the pastor is being accused of and other people are simply not true,” he said

“They were there, they saw it, they know the witnesses are lying. But if they come back they will be arrested and held in jail without being released on bail, and someone can charge them with being part of the conspiracy,” he added.

Meanwhile, Green said Quiboloy was a “strong man,” and that he has “a heart and courage of a lion." This will help him through these difficult times.

“That and his solid and beyond question faith in God. People depend and rely upon him and I think that gives him further strength and fuel to rise above these hurtful allegations to be able to perform the magnificent work that he does everyday,” Medrano said.

For its part, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Sunday that they has yet to discuss the sanctions imposed on  Quiboloy.

“We have yet to discuss,” DOJ spokesperson Atty. Mico Clavano said in a Viber message.

Quiboloy himself issued a statement, posted on the SMNI Facebook account Sunday afternoon but dated Dec. 10, saying that he will "never, never kneel down to injustice."

"There's one thing I'd like to let you know: you can take everything that I've worked for, blood, sweat and tears together with the Kingdom Nation all over the world, but you cannot take my faith in God, to the One who called me," he said. — Mel Matthew Doctor/DVM/BM, GMA Integrated News