Australia will send a U.S.-born Australian citizen back to America following allegations he unlawfully provided military training to Chinese pilots.
Daniel Duggan, who is currently residing in a New South Wales prison, was arrested in October 2022 after he was accused of breaching U.S. arms-trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots in South Africa from 2010-12.
His arrest was made weeks after he returned to Australia after working in China for six years.
The former U.S. Marine maintains that he did not realise his actions were illegal and believed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the U.S. Naval Central Intelligence Service were aware of his actions.
In a letter from prison in May, Duggan claimed ASIO agents had discussed being able to meet generals from Beijing and the topic of intelligence with him in 2012, leading him to believe he could be recruited as a spy.
ASIO has not commented because the matter is ongoing.
In an online statement as part of a petition for his release launched in 2022, Duggan’s wife Saffrine said her husband and father of their six children had been a “distinguished pilot” and “proud Australian.”
“Daniel has been caught in a geo-political storm for working in China, doing work that has been done there for decades by Western, African, and European pilots for decades with the full knowledge of these governments,” she said.
Duggan’s arrest was based on a 2017 U.S. grand jury indictment alleging his training of the Beijing pilots was in violation of a U.S. arms embargo.
Saffine said his indictment was “politically motivated” and had come about as part of the U.S. “China Initiative” aimed at cracking down on spies on American soil.
“This initiative has been widely criticised by members of the U.S. Congress, academia, civil rights groups, and Asian American communities as racial profiling and fundamentally discriminatory,” she said.
Duggan’s extradition was confirmed on Dec. 23 by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
“Mr. Duggan was given the opportunity to provide representations as to why he should not be surrendered to the U.S.,” he said in a statement.
“In arriving at my decision, I took into consideration all material in front of me.”
Duggan had submitted an 89-page document arguing against his extradition. He currently faces up to 60 years in prison.
Duggan’s lawyer Bernard Collaery said the Australian Government needed to ensure no sudden action was taken.
“Perhaps Australia’s Ambassador to the United States Mr. Kevin Rudd could convey the same message to the Trump Administration,” he said.
“This is now family time.”
