By NNN-Bernama,
Melbourne : Indian-born surgeon Jayant Patel has been granted bail by a Brisbane magistrate on manslaughter charges.
Patel, 58, who lives in the U.S., arrived in Brisbane Monday on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles accompanied by two Queensland police officers, having been in custody in his home city of Portland, Oregon, since March, The Austrlian newspaper online reported.
He faces 13 charges including manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and fraud, relating to his time at Bundaberg Base Hospital in southern Queensland between 2003 and 2005.
Magistrate Brian Hine Monday afternoon agreed to grant bail to Patel, after considering a request by his legal team in Brisbane Magistrates Court. Hine ordered Patel provide a A$20,000 cash surety.
Patel will also have to live at a place approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions, report to police three days a week and not leave Queensland or approach an international airport, the newspaper report said.
He will surrender his passport and cannot communicate with witnesses.
In granting bail, Hine said he had taken into account the fact that it would take at least 12 months for the case to reach trial and that Patel had returned to Australia from the US voluntarily.
However, he conceded Patel had no ties to the commumity, had no family here, no employment and no property.
Patel’s defence lawyer Michael Byrne argued his client was not a flight risk and bail should be granted.
But Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions Tony Moynihan opposed bail, arguing Patel was not an Australian citizen, had no family here, no job and no other ties to the community.
He said Patel’s voluntary return to Queensland had only demonstrated a recognition that extradition was inevitable.
Byrne said Patel had proven he was committed to seeing the case to fruition by agreeing to the extradition.
Byrne said Patel’s wife intended to travel to Australia in the near future to be with her husband.
Mr Byrne said a judge in the United States had already determined that Dr Patel was not a flight risk.