Rice approves 'Dr Death' Jayant Patel's extradition to Oz

Melbourne, July 20 (PTI) U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice has approved the extradition of Indian
American doctor Jayant Patel who is expected to arrive in
Australia Monday to face manslaughter charges linked to
several botched surgeries.

Patel, 58, will be handed over by U.S. marshals to two
Queensland detectives in Los Angeles, a day before the July 21
deadline set by the U.S. District Court judge in Oregon for
his extradition, failing which he would have been released on
strict bail conditions.

Dubbed as "Dr Death" by the media in Australia, Patel,
who hails from Gujarat, facing 13 charges, including
manslaughter for the death of three of his patients, stemming
from his time as director of surgery at the Bundaberg Base
Hospital in Australia's Queensland province from 2003 to 2005
and could get a maximum of life imprisonment.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said Sunday Rice had
signed off on Patel's extradition.

The surgeon will accompanied by Australian detective on
board a Brisbane-bound Qantas flight.

Bligh said she has no concerns about a looming deadline
for the extradition.

"We have no concerns about any problems with the
deadline, all of the advice we have is that this process in on
track," she was quoted as saying by news.com on its website.

"The US authorities have advised that the process is
proceeding. We're confident that he will be back in the
country in the next few days, and when that's known that will
become public," Bligh said.

Patel was shifted to LA's Metropolitan Detention Centre
on July 15 from Portland's Multnomah County Jail where he has
been held since his arrest on March 11.

Patel fled to the U.S. in April 2005, a month after an
inquiry was launched in Queensland that linked him to several
botch operations, but gave up his fight against extradition
last month.

Hailing from Gujarat, he had moved to the U.S. in 1977
and was banned from surgery in the states of New York and
Oregon before he arrived in Australia.

Patel's friends, however, claim the Indian doctor has
already be demonised by the media in Australia.

Michael Byrne, a Brisbane attorney representing Patel,
told the Oregonian newspaper that the trial is unlikely to
start before next summer.

Once his client arrives in Australia, Byrne said he
would immediately apply for bail to free him until the
government puts on a preliminary case in three to four months.

"The case received unprecedented publicity in Queensland
because there's a perception our health system is underfunded
and under-resourced."

One of Patel's supporters, Vijay Mehta, says the
surgeon can never get a fair trial in Queensland.

"I hope that my fear for him getting lynched in Australia
somehow or other does not happen -- so I am just praying for
him."

Texas-based Mehta claimed Patel was a "scapegoat" for
administrative failings.