The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

BAHAMAS Cancer Centre director Dr Arthur Porter is claiming that he has been denied medical treatment for his stage-four lung cancer while in a Panamanian prison.

Dr Porter is wanted in Canada to answer multiple charges, including fraud, conspiracy to commit government fraud, abuse of trust, secret commissions and laundering the proceeds of a crime.

His lawyer filed an official complaint with the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights last week denouncing Porter’s detention.

Dr Porter was arrested in Panama City in May in connection with his alleged role in a plot to bilk millions from a new super hospital project in Montreal, Canada.

He diagnosed himself with terminal lung cancer and was treating himself while here in the Bahamas.

He was arrested along with his wife in Panama City’s airport while in route to Trinidad and Tobago.

According to CBC News in Canada, Dr Porter previously told Canadian media that he was too sick to return to Canada to face the charges against him.

In a letter sent to that media house he said: “I have not received any medical attention or treatment of any kind. I have no doctor appointments, even simply blood tests.”

“As an oncologist, I can say that I would never inflict the kind of neglect I have been subjected to these many months.”

However, CBC news also reports that his doctor, Karol Sikora, told CBC News that he saw Porter eight weeks ago in person.

“He was fine. He was doing very well. He’s had an amazing response to a relatively new (cancer-fighting) drug called crizotinib,” Dr Sikora is reported as saying.

Dr Porter is currently fighting his extradition to Canada.