October 21 last year started like any other for Saffrine Duggan. Her husband Daniel dropped off their kids at school and went to the supermarket. He then planned to meet his wife for coffee but never showed up.
"Probably 15 minutes after that is when Dan called me and he told me that he was at the police station," she told 7.30.
"He said, 'I've been arrested.' I was in shock. He was in shock. It didn't feel real."
Daniel Duggan was born in the United States and served as a pilot in the Marines between 1989 and 2002. He's been an Australian citizen since 2012.
He's now in custody in Lithgow Correctional Centre in NSW pending extradition to the US on charges of conspiracy, arms trafficking and money laundering.
"He 100 per cent denies all accusations," Ms Duggan told 7.30.
"He is in a cage-like set-up. He does not have any access to the outside at all … there are no windows, his cell is approximately two by four metres long.
"He's a good man — and he's in isolation."
Key to the US government's pursuit of Mr Duggan is his time as a contractor with the Test Flying Academy of South Africa between 2010 and 2012.
Mr Duggan says he provided training to civilian aviators.
But in its indictment, the US government alleges the flying school had a contract with a state-owned entity in China to deliver training to military pilots.
The indictment alleges Mr Duggan provided services including "the evaluation of military pilot trainees, testing of naval aviation related equipment and instruction on the tactics, techniques and procedures associated with launching aircraft from and landing aircraft on a naval aircraft carrier".
Mr Duggan is alleged to have made a number of trips to China and conspired to conceal $182,570 in "prohibited transactions and services from detection by the United States Government as to avoid penalties".
The indictment alleges unnamed co-conspirators, not Mr Duggan, bought a former US Navy training aircraft, a T2-Buckeye, to "enhance the training" being provided.
'He's the soft target'
In her first sit-down interview, Saffrine Duggan has told 7.30 her husband denied ever training members of the Chinese military or divulging any military secrets.
"He was 100 per cent told that he was training civilian pilots. Everything was open sourced. He was working with some very credentialed other pilots. He had no reason to think that he wasn't doing anything but what he was told," she said.
"There's been many, many tears. He's still very confused as to how this could happen.
"I can't believe that it's been able to come this far.
“The reality is he's with all of these trumped-up charges, he's facing 65 years imprisonment."
The US State Department declined 7.30's request for an interview but the indictment alleges Mr Duggan knew he needed the government's written permission to train a foreign air force.
Australian army veteran and Duggan family advocate Glenn Kolomeitz claimed permission was not needed because of the nature of the work.
"Nothing about this job said that Dan was working for the military of another country. It was contracting to a civilian company," Mr Kolomeitz said.
Mr Kolomeitz said Mr Duggan trained Chinese civilian pilots in South Africa but not in their homeland.
"Let's look at the context at this time. China was booming. They were developing airports. They were drawing a lot of Western expertise to develop their aviation industry," he told 7.30.
He says the former marine visited China on his own behalf during the period in question to deliver a motivational speech to small businesses called "The Fighter Pilot's Guide to Mission Success" which did not contain any classified information and had been presented a number of times in Australia.
In a statement, the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) said Mr Duggan undertook one contract over a decade ago. It said none of its training involved classified methods nor any frontline activities or defence services and Mr Duggan has "never worked on a TFASA overseas training mandate".
Mr Kolomeitz said the indictment referred to co-conspirators from South Africa, the United Kingdom and China but none of them had been charged in relation to this matter.
"Dan was a US citizen at the time of the conduct as alleged at the time he was working. He's the soft target here," Mr Kolomeitz said.
Fractious relationship between US and China
In the background of this story is a changing geopolitical landscape. Saffrine Duggan claims her husband is being pursued because of increasing hostility between the United States and China.
"Dan has been caught up in something that is political and he shouldn't be. He's a person, an individual that they're trying to use in a political power play," she told 7.30.
Defence Analyst Ben Herscovitch from Australian National University said the relationship between the United States and China was very different around the time Mr Duggan was alleged to have committed the offences.
"New President Xi Jinping travelled to the United States in 2013, and had sunny, warm positive photo ops with President Obama," he told 7.30.
"In those early years of President Xi Jinping's tenure there was optimism about his potential role as a reformer in China."
He said tensions between the two countries ratcheted up after Donald Trump's election in 2016.
"US policy on China shifted in a really fundamental way," Mr Herscovitch said.
"China plans to operate something on the order of five aircraft carriers by roughly the 2030s and then potentially up to six or seven out to 2040-2050.
"It makes sense that the United States would be deeply troubled by this kind of story in light of the fact that … they could be going to war over the course of the next few years, or the next few decades."
The US indictment against Mr Duggan was filed in 2017. Mr Kolomeitz has questioned the timing of the indictment.
"This reeks of politics," he claims.
"It's interesting that Dan was working over there in that 2010-2012 period; suddenly, in 2017 the US change their emphasis on China, they start referring to China as the strategic threat [competitor] and all of a sudden, there's this indictment."
It was only after Mr Duggan's arrest that the indictment was made public and he learned of the charges against him.
Mr Kolomeitz points out former British air force pilots known by the UK government to have trained Chinese pilots have not been charged with any crime.
"The UK position is quite appropriate. They've identified that there were no breaches of their national security laws, there were no offences applicable," he told 7.30.
Mr Duggan's legal team is trying to halt his extradition through Australia's courts.
Mr Kolomeitz claimed the former marine should not be sent back to the US because of what's known as the double criminality requirement.
"The conduct as alleged must constitute an offence, a crime in both countries. So in the requesting country, the US, and in the requested country, Australia.
"These offences, based on the alleged conduct … did not, to my view, constitute a crime in Australia," he told 7.30.
'An uncertain future'
Mr Duggan first came to live in Australia in the early 2000s.
Saffrine met Mr Duggan in 2011 and he became an Australian citizen in 2012 to commit to Australia, his wife, and his kids.
Ms Duggan and the children returned to Australia, after living in China, at the start of the pandemic. Her husband returned last September. He was arrested weeks later.
Mr Kolomeitz said a complaint had been raised with the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) as to whether ASIO acted appropriately in the lead-up to Mr Duggan's return to Australia and arrest.
"Dan had a job offer in Australia flying for a contractor to defence, that job required a security clearance and required an Aviation Security Identification Card (ASIC). To get an ASIC you need a security clearance. ASIO told him that his security clearance was successful," he said.
"The extradition most certainly should not go ahead whilst this Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security inquiry is on foot."
A spokesman for ASIO said the organisation "operates within the letter and the spirit of the law, acting in a targeted, proportionate and ethical way" but couldn't comment further.
Ms Duggan and her children recently travelled to the US Embassy in Canberra to call for the case against her husband to be dropped. She fears he won't get a fair trial in the United States and could die in jail if he's found guilty.
"I'd like to offer a plea to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Mark Dreyfus, our Attorney-General, to let him go," she told 7.30.
The Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department said it couldn't comment on Mr Duggan's case to avoid compromising "ongoing investigations or matters in a foreign country".
Mr Duggan will remain in a NSW prison until at least late July, when the court next considers the case to stay his extradition.
Mr Kolomeitz said under the extradition act, Mr Duggan isn't eligible for bail unless there are special circumstances.
"Dan poses no flight risk. The government could very readily take away his passport. He has six kids, he has a wife, Australian, he has strong community ties. All the tests for a normal bail application, under normal circumstances independently of this extradition act are met," he said.
"We've taken a proud military man with a history of proud service, put him in a green tracksuit with … an uncertain future."
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