Daniel Duggan: Former US fighter pilot arrested in Australia over ‘isolated’ China training allegations, lawyer says

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Lawyer for former US Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan said he was nominated for extradition to the United States to face charges of training Chinese military airmen, although other Australians provided military services to foreign states.

Last month, Australia’s attorney general accepted an extradition request from Washington for Duggan, who was arrested in rural Australia in October. He is still being held in Sydney and his next court appearance will be on February 13.

Duggan is accused of training Chinese pilots to land on aircraft carriers and faces charges of money laundering and violating US arms control laws in the United States, according to an indictment. 2017 indictment unsealed in December.

He was arrested the same week Britain announced a crackdown on former military pilots training Chinese airmen.

Duggans’ lawyer, Dennis Miralis, said in court in Sydney on Tuesday that Duggan disputes and denies the US allegations and intends to contest the extradition request.

He has clearly, in our view, been singled out in circumstances where the Ministry of Defense has admitted that it knows many Australian citizens who have carried out foreign service in other jurisdictions with foreign states of a military nature, he told reporters.

The defense ministers office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Australia has launched a review of the obligations of former members of the Defense Force to protect state secrets, after reports that Australians were among Western military pilots who had been approached to help train the army Chinese.

Duggan was arrested in rural Australia in October after returning from China, where he had lived since 2014.

He became an Australian citizen after serving in the Marines for 12 years, then renounced his US citizenship.

The final decision to surrender Duggan would be made by the attorney general after the court decides whether he is eligible for extradition, Miralis said.

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