By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

EMBATTLED physician Dr Arthur Porter has decided to challenge extradition to Canada under the legal counsel of a a former Panamanian diplomat to the U.S.

Stating that his first move would be to seek bail for his client, lawyer Ricardo Bilonick told media in Panama that Porter would fight extradition on the grounds of innocence and illegal arrest. Dr Porter and his wife Pamela Mattock, 53, were detained at a holding centre yesterday; however, officials expect he could be transferred to a normal prison today.

The Porters were arrested in Panama City during a connecting flight from Nassau to Trinidad and Tobago.

Anne-Frederick Laurence, spokesperson for Quebec’s anti-corruption squad, UPAC, told The Tribune that Dr Porter has 15 days to contest extradition in a Panamanian court. She added that the International Affairs and the Ministry of Justice were working the Panamanian government to process the extradition.

According to reports, the Canadian government has 60 days to provide Panamanian officials with justification for Dr Porter’s detention, and subsequent extradition.

In 1991, Mr Bilonick, a former Panamanian ambassador, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega to smuggle cocaine through their country in the mid-1980s. The former diplomat and businessman was heralded as one of the prosecution’s key witnesses against Noriega.

Mr Bilonick’s announcement came as a surprise yesterday, according to Canadian news media, which previously reported the 57-year-old decorated oncologist had been keen on avoiding staying in a Panamanian jail.

Mr Bilonick told reporters that Dr Porter was arrested while aboard a plane to Antigua, which is outside Panamanian jurisdiction. According to Mr Bilonick, Porter had diplomatic immunity as he was on a mission for the government of Sierra Leone.

The Sierra Leone-born Porter is a physician and cancer specialist who faces 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.

Canadian police believe Pamela Mattock conspired with her husband to launder millions of dollars, according to an arrest warrant obtained by The Tribune.

According to reports, police stopped Dr Porter and his wife at the Tocumen airport on Sunday night. Mrs Porter was apprehended immediately; however, Dr Porter was said to have evaded arrest when he presented his diplomatic passport from Sierra Leone.

The Old Fort Bay resident was picked up the following day after Panamanian authorities discovered that his diplomatic status had been revoked.

In the Bahamas, Porter is managing director of the Cancer Centre of the Bahamas in Nassau. He was contracted by the government last year to lead a national task force on stem cell therapy.

In January, Dr Porter told The Tribune that he had late, stage-four cancer and was too ill to travel as allegations surrounding his business ventures, and tenure and resignation from the McGill University Health Centre heightened.

According to reports, Dr Porter travels with a portable oxygen and chemotherapy kit but was deemed fit for prison by a local hospital.