Former fighter pilot to fight extradition to US

Daniel Duggan to argue tricky timing of his extradition to the US over claims he trained Chinese military, amid cooling of US-China relations.

A former US fighter pilot will fight his extradition to the US, following allegations he was providing the Chinese military with air traffic training, in what is set to be a lengthy court battle.

Australian citizen Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, has been in custody for more than 100 days over allegations he received 12 payments of more than $116,000 from a Chinese-based business which was responsible for acquiring military training, equipment and technical data for China’s government and military, for “personal development training”.

The former Marine, who lived for years in China where he worked in aviation before relocating to Australia to take a job on the NSW south coast, is currently “anxiously” detained in Silverwater Correctional Complex.

His lawyer Dennis Miralis told Downing Centre Local Court on Monday Mr Duggan had read through a bundle of extradition material from US prosecutors from December 28, which lays out the US government‘s evidence, and had instructed him to formally contest the extradition based on that material.

Former fighter pilot Daniel Duggan.

Mr Miralis said they would argue the extradition should fail because “double criminality” was not met under US law. This means the extradition matter must constitute a crime in both the requesting and requested countries.

Mr Miralis said they had requested documents from the Australian Federal Police, the Attorneys-General department, the Department of Defence, the Department of Home Affairs, and the US, to defend the case.

“Unfortunately, it’s likely to be a lengthy process,” he told the court.

Outside court Mr Miralis said the government was “unsurprisingly” refusing to produce documents “based on secrecy provisions” and they may need to initiate additional court proceedings to determine if those objections were lawful.

He said Mr Duggan was “very anxious to ensure governments don’t hinder his ability to get access to this material”.

Wife Saffrine and Daniel Duggan. Picture: Instagram

They would also contest his extradition to the US based on Mr Duggan’s “political objection” which Mr Miralis elaborated on outside court, saying the “geopolitical context was relevant” to the case.

“The timing of the decision to unseal this indictment seems very much to coincide with that cooling of relations internationally between the US and China and of course in the context of Australia’s involvement in respect to its relationship to the US, it seems to us this may very well have been a factor in terms of accepting the extradition request from the US,” he said.

In December, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus agreed to receive the US’s extradition request.

“This fits very much into the nature of the political objection being explored and is likely to be relied upon.”

Mr Miralis also told the court there was a parallel investigation being conducted by the Inspector General of Intelligence Security which would likely be relevant to the way Mr Duggan would defend himself.

When asked how Mr Duggan was doing in Silverwater prison, Mr Miralis said he was “very anxious about the future conduct of this case.”

The former Marine has been indicted in the US on charges including conspiracy to unlawfully export defence services to China, conspiracy to launder money, and violating the arms export control act and international traffic in arms regulations.

Mr Duggan denies any criminal involvement in the indictment.

The matter will return to court on March 20.