By Peter Hobson
CANBERRA (Reuters) -Former U.S. Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan appealed in an Australian court on Thursday against extradition to the United States on charges of violating U.S. arms control laws related to China, with his lawyer arguing his conduct was not an offence in Australia at the time.
In December 2024, Australia’s then attorney-general Mark Dreyfus approved a United States extradition request for Duggan, who faces U.S. charges including that he trained Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers.
Duggan, 57, a naturalised Australian citizen, was arrested by Australian Federal Police in a rural town in the state of New South Wales in October 2022, shortly after returning from China, where he had lived since 2014.
Duggan appeared in the federal court in Canberra on Thursday, clean shaven in a dark blue suit. He sat erect in his seat as he followed proceedings with a pen and documents on his lap but did not speak.
His lawyer Christopher Parkin told the court the extradition was “uncharted territory” for Australia, arguing his conduct was not an offence in Australia at the time, nor when the U.S. requested extradition, so did not meet the requirement for dual criminality in Australia’s extradition treaty with the United States.
“This is a fairly extraordinary case,” Parkin said.
“The offenses must be punishable under the laws of both parties at the time when the relevant conduct occurred,” he said, adding that it should not be possible to “punish someone in this country for something they did 10 years ago that wasn’t an offense at the time.”
Duggan’s lawyers previously argued in court that there is no evidence the Chinese pilots he trained in South Africa between 2010 and 2012 were military, and he was no longer a U.S. citizen at the time of the alleged offences. Duggan renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2016 at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, backdated to 2012 on a certificate, they said.
A 2017 indictment in the United States said Duggan’s alleged violation of an arms embargo imposed on China by the United States also included providing aviation services in China in 2010, and providing an assessment of China’s aircraft carrier training.
Duggan, who has six children in Australia, has been held in prison since his arrest.
The Australian government is expected to dispute the appeal as the hearing continues.
(Reporting by Peter Hobson in Canberra; Writing by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry)
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