The wife of detained Australian citizen and former US Marines fighter pilot Daniel Duggan has described his ongoing incarceration – now at 115 days - as “inhumane” and an “affront to Australia’s rule of law”.
Saffrine Duggan will petition the United Nations human rights committee to intervene in her husband’s detention. He is confined to a 2x4m cell in Sydney’s Silverwater prison and classified as an “extreme high-risk restricted inmate” without justification, she says.
The US is seeking Duggan’s extradition on charges of arms trafficking and money laundering more than a decade ago.
The US alleges Duggan, a former US citizen now a naturalised Australian, 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. Those claims have not been tested in court.
Duggan, 54, who maintains his innocence and is fighting his extradition, is in custody.
At Sydney’s Downing Centre court on Monday, magistrate Greg Grogin heard that Duggan denied the charges against him and would fight his extradition on the grounds of dual criminality and that his prosecution was politically motivated.
Duggan, the court heard, had requested tranches of documents about his case from government and law enforcement agencies in Australia and the US.
Outside court, Duggan’s lawyer, Dennis Miralis, said that government agencies in Australia and the US had been reticent to hand over documents critical to Duggan’s defence.
“Regrettably, to date, we haven’t been getting the cooperation that, in our view, would be essential to ensure that Mr Duggan’s rights are properly protected. Government agencies, perhaps unsurprisingly, are refusing to produce documents on the basis of secrecy provisions.”
Miralis said Duggan might be forced to launch separate legal proceedings in order to obtain the government documents he needs.
“Mr Duggan is very anxious about … the fact that in order for him to be able to properly defend himself, he really needs to be able to get material that the government has. And he’s very anxious to ensure that governments don’t hinder his ability to get access to that material.”
Duggan’s treatment has already been raised in a formal complaint to Australia’s inspector general of intelligence and security.
“The manner and circumstances behind this prosecution of Dan are something you would expect to find in an authoritarian country,” Saffrine Duggan said, “but not in a democratic Australia, where its citizens expect a more fair-and-balanced equal application of the law and the overriding principle of a ‘fair go’ for all.
“Dan strenuously rejects all charges against him as being of a political character and politically motivated. His indictment contains half-truths, falsehoods and gross embellishments.”
Duggan, the father of six Australian children aged between five and 18, was arrested by Australian federal police officers on 21 October last year at a supermarket in Orange, New South Wales, after dropping his children at school. His arrest was at the request of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was refused bail and has been incarcerated for the 115 days since.
Australia’s extradition treaty with the US states that extradition must be refused if the alleged offence is of a “political character”. The principle of dual, or double, criminality requires that the alleged offences must be a crime in both countries.
Saffrine Duggan said her family had received “overwhelming support” from around Australia and the world but were struggling to “make ends meet” and engage in the drawn-out legal battle to fight the allegations.
“We desperately seek ongoing support and respectfully ask people demand that our government protects and defends the rule of law, due process and Australian sovereignty,” she said. A public petition supporting her husband has attracted nearly 10,000 signatures.
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 in 2012 and renouncing his US citizenship.
A 2017 US grand jury indictment, unsealed last December, alleges Duggan received at least A$116,000 (US$81,000) in payments 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”.
The indictment alleges Duggan “provided military training to People’s Republic of China military pilots … and instruction on the tactics, techniques and procedures associated with launching aircraft from, and landing aircraft on, a naval aircraft carrier”.
The federal attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, approved the US’s extradition request late last year. Duggan’s eligibility or otherwise for extradition will be initially determined by a magistrate, but there are avenues for appeal to the federal and high courts which could take years to ultimately determine. The attorney general makes the final decision on all extraditions.
