A Sydney judge ruled on Friday that former US Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan can be extradited to the United States on charges of unlawfully training Chinese aviators, leaving the attorney general’s only chance of remaining in Australia.
Magistrate Daniel Reiss ordered the 55-year-old Boston native to remain in detention while awaiting extradition.
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Despite their lack of legal grounds to challenge the magistrate’s extradition decision for Duggan, his attorneys plan to present their case to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, arguing against the pilot’s surrender.
“The attorney will give us sufficient time, I’m quite sure, to ventilate all of the issues that, under the Extradition Act, are not capable of being run in an Australian court,” Duggan’s lawyer, Bernard Collaery, told reporters outside court.
According to a statement from Dreyfus’ office, the government does not comment on extradition cases.
The mother of Duggan’s six children, Saffrine Duggan, asserted that the extradition hearing was merely a matter of checking boxes.
“Now, we respectfully ask the attorney general to reconsider this case and bring my husband home,” she told reporters and supporters outside court.
Earlier this month, Duggan’s lawyer claimed in a legal document that the pilot unintentionally collaborated with a Chinese hacker, according to Reuters.
Since his capture in 2022 at his family home in New South Wales, the pilot has spent 19 months in a maximum-security prison.
In a 2016 indictment unsealed late in 2022 by the United States District Court in Washington, D.C., prosecutors claim Duggan plotted with others to provide training to Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, and possibly earlier times, without filing for an appropriate license.
Prosecutors claim Duggan received around nine payments totaling approximately 88,000 Australian dollars ($61,000) and overseas travel from another conspirator for what was often referred to as “personal development training.”
Duggan, a highly recognized jet pilot, served in the United States Marine Corps for 12 years, rising to the rank of major and acting as a tactical flight teacher before moving to Australia in 2002. In January 2012, he obtained Australian citizenship, choosing to give up his US citizenship in the process.
According to the accusation, Duggan flew to the United States, China, and South Africa, where he trained Chinese pilots.
Duggan has disputed the allegations, claiming they are political posturing by the United States that unfairly targets him.
Duggan worked for Top Gun Tasmania, which advertised itself as Australia’s “premier adventure flight company.”
On the company’s now-defunct website, Duggan identified himself as a “former U.S. Marine Corps officer of over 12 years.” He flew missions from Kuwait and the USS Boxer to support Operation Southern Watch, according to the website.
“As a highly trained fighter pilot, he flew harrier jump jets off of aircraft carriers tactically around the globe,” says the website.
