appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

liveArticle

appConfig

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sectionsV2

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

json

FORMER Prince of Wales Hospital heart surgeon Dr Jonathan Ho Kei-shing - on bail in India following the transplant of a pig's organs into a man - could be cleared soon, his lawyer said.

 Human rights lawyer Niloy Dutta said he would ask the High Court of Assam, in northeast India, to dismiss within days charges of manslaughter and flouting transplant laws.

 Ho was arrested in January and accused of helping Indian Dr Dhani Ram Baruah to transplant the internal organs of a pig into a 32-year-old unmarried farmer from a remote village.

 The operation - after which the patient died - is understood to have been performed at Baruah's self-styled 'Heart City', in a small village, an hour's drive from Assam's capital, Guwahati.

 'We have moved an application before the Assam High Court to quash the whole prosecution on the grounds that the charges and materials so far do not make out any criminal case,' Mr Dutta told the Sunday Morning Post.

 Assam authorities had confiscated Ho's passport but allowed him to move with wife Betty to the city of Bangalore, about 2,200 kilometres to the southwest.

 'It was getting very costly,' Mr Dutta said. 'He was staying in a big hotel and he was running out of money. The police did not need him for anything else.'  From Bangalore, Ho said he was thankful for the support of friends and attended daily prayers at the local Indian Evangelican Mission.

 Ho ran a controversial trial at Chinese University in 1992, fitting patients with heart valves fashioned from ox tissue and designed by Baruah.

 His former dean of medicine, now Vice-Chancellor, Professor Arthur Li Kwok-ho, 'remains very supportive', Ho said.

 'We are thankful for friends' support. I am waiting and praying all the time. We are here learning and understanding the society of India and the system; it's very different.'  The couple were uncertain whether they would return to Hong Kong. The US-trained surgeon was struck from the register this year, after leaving Chinese University, and could face two years of exams to re-register.

 Mrs Ho said the couple were 'optimistic, but still very conservative' about the outcome.

 They had received Hong Kong newspapers and were having to cope with speculation. 'The other day, we read in a Hong Kong newspaper that the case was cleared,' Mrs Ho said. 'All we can do now is hold our faith.' 



Pig-organ surgeon may be cleared soon: lawyer