SYDNEY: A surgeon linked to the deaths of more than a dozen patients returned to Australia on Monday to face trial on charges including manslaughter, prosecutors said.

Jayant Patel, 58, arrived early in the morning following his extradition from the United States, a spokeswoman for the director of public prosecutions in Queensland state told AFP.

"He has returned to Brisbane, that we can confirm," she said.

Nicknamed "Doctor Death" by the Australian media, the Indian-born surgeon is at the centre of a scandal which has brought procedures for recruitment of foreign doctors under intense scrutiny in Australia.

The doctor, who is a US citizen, is facing a series of charges over 17 patient deaths relating to his time as director of surgery at a hospital in north-eastern Queensland from 2003 to 2005.

The charges he faces include manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and fraud.

Patel flew from Los Angeles on a Qantas flight accompanied by two Australian detectives and was immediately transferred to a police watch house in Brisbane to await a hearing where he will be formally charged.

State Premier Anna Bligh said Monday that the court process against Patel would be long and complicated.

"There will be many times when this matter will come before the courts before we see a formal committal hearing and beyond that a full trial," Bligh told reporters.

Critics have alleged that Patel was recruited to his post in the Queensland city of Bundaberg despite concerns about his competence when previously practising in the United States.

A representative of patients expressed "relief" Monday that a long extradition process was finally over and said she believed Patel would get a fair trial despite the intense publicity the case has received in Australia.

"Just because a case is high profile that shouldn't be a reason not to go to trial," said Beryl Crosby, a former Patel patient.

A number of patients have travelled from Bundaberg to Brisbane to see Patel appear in court.

- AFP/yb