Ex-marine Daniel Duggan appeals extradition to US over claims of training Chinese pilots

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan on Thursday appealed his extradition from Australia to the United States over allegations that he illegally trained Chinese military aviators more than a decade ago.

Duggan is accused of training Chinese military pilots while working as an instructor for the Test Flying Academy of South Africa in 2012. He appeared at the court in Canberra to file the appeal with his attorney after traveling 350 kilometers (218 miles) from a prison in Wellington, New South Wales state.

Australian Federal Court Justice James Stellios will announce a verdict on a date yet to be set following a one-day hearing in the national capital Canberra.

A 2016 indictment from the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., which was unsealed in late 2022, alleges Duggan conspired with others to provide training to Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, and possibly other times, without applying for an appropriate license.

Prosecutors allege Duggan received about nine payments totaling around 88,000 Australian dollars ($61,000) from another conspirator as well as travel to the U.S., South Africa and China for what was sometimes described as “personal development training.”

Duggan has denied the allegations, saying they were political posturing by the U.S., which unfairly singled him out. He has been held in maximum security prisons since he was arrested in 2022 at a supermarket near his family home in New South Wales.

Australia's then Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus approved the 57-year-old’s extradition in December, but his lawyers argued in court Thursday there had been legal flaws in the extradition process.

Dreyfus was replaced as attorney general in May by Michelle Rowland, who has not reviewed her predecessor’s decision to send Boston-born Duggan back to the U.S.

“The government notes the proceedings in the Federal Court today regarding Mr. Duggan,” Rowland’s office said in a statement, adding that further comment was not appropriate because the case remains in court.

Duggan’s wife and mother of his six children, Saffrine Duggan, told supporters outside the court Thursday that Rowland “could set Dan free at any time.”

“He is being used as a pawn in an ideological war between the United States and China and the Australian government agencies have allowed this to happen and are willing participants,” Saffrine Duggan said. “My husband broke no Australian law and he was an Australian citizen when the alleged pilot training occurred."

Daniel Duggan's lawyer, Christopher Parkin, told the court it was “extraordinary” that someone could be extradited from Australia, accused of breaking U.S. laws, for an action in South Africa.

Duggan served in the U.S. Marines for 12 years before migrating to Australia in 2002. He gained Australian citizenship in January 2012, giving up his U.S. citizenship in the process.