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Crown prosecutor says she wants hard evidence Arthur Porter is dead

In this photo taken Saturday, March 2, 2013, Dr. Arthur Porter speaks with a reporter at his home in Nassau, Bahamas. Canada's anti-corruption police issued on Feb. 27, 2013 an arrest warrant for Porter, a physician and cancer specialist who faces six fraud-related charges stemming from the construction of the $3.1 billion McGill University Health Center in Montreal. He said he has stage-four cancer and is too ill to travel from the Bahamas to face investigators. Jeff Todd/AP/The Canadian Press

MONTREAL – A Crown prosecutor in Quebec says she wants concrete evidence that Arthur Porter is dead before dropping fraud charges against him.

Marie-Helene Giroux tells The Canadian Press she needs official confirmation and corroborative proof that the 59-year-old Porter died in a Panamanian hospital.

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READ MORE: Arthur Porter dies in Panama hospital, biographer says

His biographer, Jeff Todd, published a statement Wednesday to say Porter’s doctor confirmed his patient had succumbed to cancer.

Porter had been detained since May 2013 in Panama as he fought extradition to Canada, where he faced fraud charges relating to a $1.3-billion hospital project in Montreal.

Todd published a second statement on Thursday, reportedly from Porter’s family, confirming his death.

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Giroux sais her office has started preparing an official request to receive proof of Porter’s passing, such as a death certificate signed by a doctor.

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