CANBERRA, Australia — A former United States navy pilot’s Sydney extradition listening to on U.S. prices, together with that he illegally skilled Chinese language aviators, was postponed Tuesday whereas authorities examine the function of an Australian spy company in his arrest.
Boston-born Dan Duggan, 54, was arrested by Australian police in October close to his dwelling, in Orange, New South Wales, and has been preventing extradition to the US. The previous U.S. Marine Corps main and flying teacher maintains he has achieved nothing flawed and is an harmless sufferer of a worsening energy wrestle between Washington and Beijing.
“It is a sign, sign sending. It has nothing to do with me personally,” Duggan informed the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in a phone name from maximum-security jail.
“It’s extra to do with the sign that they need to ship in a geopolitical sense,” he added in an interview broadcast on Monday.
His attorneys efficiently utilized Tuesday in Sydney’s Downing Centre Native Court docket for the extradition listening to to be delayed till Nov. 24 whereas they await findings about their allegation that Duggan, now an Australian citizen, was illegally lured from China again to Australia in 2022 to be arrested.
Inspector-Common of Intelligence and Safety Christopher Jessup, the regulator of Australia’s six spy companies, introduced in March that he was investigating Duggan’s allegation that the Australian Safety Intelligence Group, often known as ASIO, was a part of a U.S. ploy to extradite him.
Duggan returned from China to work in Australia after he obtained an ASIO safety clearance for an aviation license. A couple of days after his arrival, the ASIO clearance was eliminated, which his attorneys argue made the job alternative an unlawful lure to a U.S. extradition accomplice nation. They anticipate Jessup’s findings will present grounds to oppose extradition and apply for his launch from jail on bail earlier than the extradition query is resolved.
Duggan’s grounds for resisting extradition embody his declare that the prosecution is political and that the crime he’s accused of doesn’t exist beneath Australian legislation. The extradition treaty between the 2 international locations that has existed since 1976 requires {that a} suspect can solely be extradited for an allegation that’s acknowledged by each international locations as a criminal offense.
The Australian authorities is reviewing legal guidelines to make sure former navy personnel can’t promote their experience to the Chinese language navy.
Saffrine Duggan, Duggan’s spouse and mom of their six youngsters, addressed greater than 20 supporters who protested outdoors the courtroom for his launch.
“I might by no means have thought this might ever occur in Australia, not to mention to our household,” she mentioned. “My household is courageous and robust and so are our pals and so is my husband, however we’re all terribly torn aside.”
She complained in February that Australia was holding her husband in inhumane situations.
Dan Duggan mentioned the Chinese language pilots he skilled whereas he was contracted by flying college Check Flying Academy of South Africa in 2011 and 2012 — the interval lined by the costs — have been civilians, and nothing he taught was labeled.
His lawyer, Bernard Collaery, mentioned the Australian and Chinese language navies have been concerned in joint coaching workout routines across the time Duggan was accused of “consorting with the enemy.”
“It’s a double commonplace, it’s hypocrisy,” Collaery mentioned.
“If Australia does extradite him, we’re liable to see him grow to be a pawn on this China recreation. It is vitally worrying,” the lawyer added.
© Copyright 2023 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
