Wife of Arthur Porter agrees to voluntary extradition to Canada
Lawyer for jailed couple says former head of MUHC will still fight to stay in Panama
Authorities in Panama say Pamela Mattock Porter, the wife of Arthur Porter, has agreed to be extradited to Canada.
However, they say that Porter — the former head of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) — still plans to mount a legal fight to stay in Panama.
Porter and his wife were arrested last week at an airport hotel in Panama City.
Authorities in Canada issued an international warrant for their arrests in February.
Porter is facing charges of fraud and laundering the proceeds of a crime, among others. The man who was once Canada's top spy watchdog is accused of being at the heart of a fraud scandal involving the $1.3-billion MUHC superhospital project in Montreal, the largest of its kind in Canada.
Mattock Porter is facing two charges: laundering the proceeds of crime and conspiracy.
The Deputy Commissioner of the Panama National Police, Alexis Munoz, said the couple's lawyer, Ricardo Bilonick, sent word that Mattock Porter is willing to sign papers agreeing to her voluntary extradition.
Munoz told CBC's Catherine Cullen that the processing of Mattock Porter's extradition could still take a few weeks.