Heartbreaking Appeal from Top Gun Pilot’s Family in Australian Jail

Daniel Duggan has requested an appeal against his extradition to the United States.
U.S. authorities alleged that he worked together with China

A former U.S. Marine Corps pilot, Daniel Duggan, sought to challenge his extradition from Australia to the United States on Thursday. The request comes amid claims that he unlawfully trained Chinese military pilots over ten years ago.

Duggan is charged with instructing Chinese military aviators during his tenure at the Test Flying Academy ofSouth Africa in 2012.

He arrived at the court in Canberra on Thursday to submit the appeal along with his lawyer after traveling 350km from a prison in Wellington,New South Wales.

Saffrine Duggan, the wife of Duggan and mother to his six children, informed supporters outside the court on Thursday that Attorney-General Michelle Rowland ‘has the power to release Dan whenever she chooses.’

He is being utilized as a pawn in an ideological conflict between the United States andChina“and the Australian government agencies have permitted this to occur and are active participants,” Saffrine Duggan stated.

My spouse did not violate any Australian law and was an Australian citizen at the time the alleged flight training took place.

Daniel Duggan’s attorney, Christopher Parkin, informed the court that it was ‘unusual’ for an individual to be sent back to Australia, facing charges related to U.S. laws, for an act committed in South Africa.

Duggan was a member of the U.S. Marines for 12 years prior to moving to Australia in 2002. He obtained Australian nationality in January 2012, at which point he renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Australian Federal Court Judge James Stellios is set to deliver an extradition ruling on a date that has not yet been determined after a one-day hearing held in the nation’s capital, Canberra.

In 2016, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an indictment that was made public in late 2022, accusing Duggan of collaborating with others to offer training to Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, without obtaining the necessary authorization.

Prosecutors claim that Duggan received approximately nine payments amounting to roughly $88,000 from a co-conspirator, along with travel expenses to the U.S., South Africa, and China, which was occasionally referred to as ‘personal development training.’

Duggan has rejected the claims, stating that they were politically motivated actions by the U.S., which unjustly targeted him.

He has remained in high-security prisons since his arrest in 2022 at a supermarket close to his family’s residence in New South Wales.

Australia’s former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus gave approval for the 57-year-old’s extradition in December, yet his legal team contended in court on Thursday that there were legal issues with the extradition procedure.

Dreyfus was succeeded as attorney general in May by Rowland, who has yet to examine her predecessor’s choice to return Boston-born Duggan to the United States.

“The government acknowledges the events in the Federal Court today concerning Mr. Duggan,” said Rowland’s office in a statement, noting that additional comments were not suitable as the case is still ongoing in court.