Former Marines pilot who labored in China to be extradited to U.S., says Australia authorities
SYDNEY — Australia on Monday accredited a United States extradition request for former U.S. Marines pilot Daniel Duggan, who faces prices together with breaking U.S. arms management regulation by coaching Chinese language army pilots to land on plane carriers.
Duggan, 55, a naturalised Australian citizen, was arrested by Australian Federal Police in a rural city in New South Wales state in October 2022, shortly after getting back from China, the place he had lived since 2014.
Duggan’s attorneys have argued in court docket there isn’t any proof the Chinese language pilots he skilled had been army, and he was now not a U.S. citizen on the time of the alleged offences. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2016 on the U.S. embassy in Beijing, backdated to 2012 on a certificates, they stated.
Australia’s Lawyer-Normal Mark Dreyfus stated he had decided Duggan must be extradited to america to face prosecution, after a New South Wales Justice of the Peace in Might discovered him eligible for give up.
“Mr Duggan was given the chance to offer representations as to why he shouldn’t be surrendered to america. In arriving at my resolution, I took into consideration all materials in entrance of me,” Dreyfus stated in an announcement.
Duggan, who has six kids in Australia and has been held in jail since his arrest, was not accessible for remark.
Duggan’s household was “devastated” by the choice, after receiving a letter from the federal government saying he will probably be extradited between December 30 and February 17, his spouse Saffrine stated in an announcement.
“The household and Dan’s attorneys at the moment are contemplating their authorized choices, together with requesting particular causes for the federal government’s resolution,” the assertion stated.
The allegations centre round a flying college in South Africa the place Duggan labored half time as a flying teacher greater than 12 years in the past, the assertion stated.
“Dan maintains his innocence and denies the allegations made in opposition to him, which weren’t thought-about a criminal offense in Australia,” it added.
An indictment unsealed by the District of Columbia court docket confirmed Duggan faces 4 prices, and alleges he travelled between Australia, the U.S., China and South Africa between 2009 and 2012, when he was contracted by a Chinese language nationwide to offer providers to a Chinese language state owned firm, together with evaluations of Chinese language army pilot trainees and instruction on touchdown on plane carriers.
U.S. authorities discovered correspondence with Duggan on digital gadgets seized from Chinese language hacker Su Bin, who Duggan knew as an employment dealer for Chinese language state aviation firm AVIC, his attorneys beforehand stated.
Convicted hacker Su Bin is one in every of seven co-conspirators within the U.S. indictment, though Duggan’s attorneys argue the hacking case is unrelated.
Duggan’s arrest got here the identical week Britain warned dozens of former army pilots to cease working for China or face prosecution.
Australia toughened legal guidelines stopping former defence employees from coaching “sure international militaries” in response to the case and an investigation into one other pilot who labored on the South African flying college.
