In a speech from prison, the Australian pilot Daniel Duggan has said he faces a “gross injustice” if extradited to the US and, potentially, a “cruelly long sentence”, warning Australia against acquiescing to the demands of powerful countries.
The address, dictated by Duggan from his prison cell to his legal team, and read on his behalf on Saturday night in Sydney, urged his audience to “say no to Australia being a political lackey to any foreign government, as allies can be dangerous too”.
“Stand and say no to politically charged extraditions of Australian citizens, who surely face gross injustice and cruelly long sentences if approved – setting a dangerous precedent for future generations of Australians,” he said.
Duggan, a former US marine pilot now naturalised Australian, was arrested last October at the request of the US government, which is seeking his extradition on charges of arms trafficking and money laundering, arising from his alleged training of Chinese fighter pilots, more than a decade ago. The allegations have not been tested in court.
Duggan, 54, who has no criminal history anywhere in the world, has been refused bail, and has faced extreme isolation in prison, having been classified as a high-risk prisoner. He denies the charges and is fighting his extradition from prison, a process that could take months, even years, to resolve.
Duggan’s legal team has maintained the US extradition request is an arbitrary and politically motivated prosecution, catalysed by the US’s deepening geopolitical contest with China.
His lawyers have said both the Australian and US governments have been reticent to provide the evidentiary documents Duggan requires in order to be able to properly defend his case.
Duggan’s speech was read at the fifth sitting of the Belmarsh Tribunal, an ad hoc panel of legal experts focused on the case of Australian publisher Julian Assange, named for the maximum security prison where Assange is currently held.
Duggan, the father of six school-aged Australian citizen children, paid tribute to Assange, telling the Belmarsh Tribunal that history was filled with instances “where those in power – from countries considered good and bad – have manipulated and weaponised legal systems to unjustly prosecute those who dare to challenge the politics of the day with inconvenient truths”.
“It takes a certain brave, relentless persistence to push back, and ultimately overcome, such abuses of power.”
Duggan quoted the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who, speaking in the context of Canberra’s relationship with Beijing, said Australia’s foreign policy disposition must be to “cooperate when we can, disagree where we must”.
“It should not just apply to one country,” Duggan said, “but all countries regardless of who they are.
“So when Australia sovereignty comes into question by politically motivated extradition requests of Australian citizens by any foreign state, regardless of their might, Australia must ‘disagree’.”
The US alleges Duggan trained Chinese fighter pilots to land fighter jets on aircraft carriers, in defiance of arms trafficking laws, and engaged in a conspiracy to launder money.
Duggan served more than a decade flying in the US Marine Corps, rising to the rank of major and working as a military tactical flight instructor.
He left the marines in 2002 and moved to Australia, becoming an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2012 and renouncing his US citizenship.
A 2017 US grand jury indictment, unsealed last December, details payments Duggan allegedly received in 2011 and 2012 for his work training Chinese fighter pilots at a test flight academy “based in South Africa, with a presence in the People’s Republic of China”.
Duggan strenuously rejects the charges against him as being politically motivated, and the indictment against him filled with “half-truths, falsehoods and gross embellishments”.
Despite never having been convicted of a crime in any country, Duggan has been classified as an Extreme High Risk Restricted (EHRR) and Protection Non-Association (PRNA) prisoner. He is currently being held in a two-metre-by-four-metre cell at Silverwater in Sydney’s west.
He refused a move to the notorious “boneyard” at Silverwater, where convicted paedophiles and police informers are held for their protection, and has requested he be moved to Bathurst prison, so he can be closer to his family, who live in Orange. His case returns to court later this month.
