By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE wife of former MUHC boss Dr Arthur Porter will remain in a Canadian prison until a preliminary inquiry in September, according to Quebec court Judge Robert Marchi.

According to media reports, former Old Fort Bay resident Pamela Mattock Porter became the first person arrested by the province’s anti-corruption unit to be denied bail.

The bail process was covered by a publication ban; however it was reported that the judge sided with Crown prosecution that Mrs Porter presented a flight risk.

Mrs Porter was extradited to Canada in June, and has been in detention since she was arrested in Panama with her husband on May 26.

Canadian police believe the former Bahamas resident conspired with her husband to launder millions of dollars, according to the arrest warrant obtained by The Tribune.

Since the police unit UPAC was created two years ago, media reports indicated that 106 people have been arrested and charged.

Quebec’s anti-corruption squad issued an international arrest warrant for the couple in February.

Meanwhile, Dr Porter continues to battle extradition from Panamanian jail, La Joya.

The Sierra Leone-born Dr Porter is a physician and cancer specialist who faces at least six fraud-related charges stemming from the construction of the US$1.3 billion McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. Porter was director of the hospital when the alleged fraud is said to have occurred between 2008 and 2011.

According to his lawyer Ricardo Bilonick Paredes, the 57-year-old decorated oncologist and his wife were on a diplomatic mission to Antigua and Barbuda and should not have been arrested.

Since his detention, thoracic surgeon Dr Duane Sands has come forward to support claims that the embattled scientist is suffering from lung cancer.

Dr Sands’ testimony followed a public pronouncement by controversial cancer expert Dr Karol Sikora, director of Medical Oncology at the Bahamas Cancer Centre with which Dr Porter was associated.

Last month, the Embassy of Sierra Leone in Washington, DC, posted a public notice revoking Dr Porter’s diplomatic passport and appointment as Ambassador at Large for the Republic of Sierra Leone. Dr Porter received the appointment as a Canadian resident in 2010.