Former US Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan would be extradited from Australia to the US over allegations that he illegally trained Chinese aviators.
Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus yesterday approved the extradition, ending the Boston-born man’s almost two-year attempt to avoid being returned to the US.
Duggan, who served in the Marines for 12 years before immigrating to Australia and giving up his US citizenship, has been in a maximum-security prison since he was arrested in 2022 at his family home in the state of New South Wales. He is the father of six children.
Photo: Saffrine Duggan via AP
Dreyfus confirmed in a statement yesterday he had approved the extradition, but did not say when Duggan would be transferred to the US.
“Duggan was given the opportunity to provide representations as to why he should not be surrendered to the United States. In arriving at my decision, I took into consideration all material in front of me,” Dreyfus said.
In May, a Sydney judge ruled Duggan could be extradited to the US, leaving an appeal to the attorney-general as Duggan’s last hope of remaining in Australia.
In a 2016 indictment from the US District Court in Washington unsealed in late 2022, prosecutors said Duggan conspired with others to provide training to Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, and possibly at other times, without applying for an appropriate license.
Prosecutors said he received payments totaling about A$88,000 (US$55,039) and international travel from another conspirator for what was sometimes described as “personal development training.”
If convicted, Duggan faces up to 60 years in prison. He denies the allegations.
“We feel abandoned by the Australian government and deeply disappointed that they have completely failed in their duty to protect an Australian family,” his wife, Saffrine Duggan, said in a statement yesterday. “We are now considering our options.”
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