Ex-Marine in Australia facing extradition to US says he wasn’t American citizen during China pilot training
- Daniel Duggan was arrested in 2022 and was accused of breaking US law by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers
- Duggan argued he renounced his US citizenship in 2012 and was not an American national at the time of the alleged offences
Daniel Duggan, a 55-year-old Australian citizen, is facing extradition from Australia on charges including money laundering and breaking US law by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers.
He was arrested by Australian federal police in a rural town in New South Wales state in October 2022, shortly after returning from China, where he had lived since 2014.
In the same week, Britain issued a warning to its former defence staff not to train Chinese People’s Liberation Army pilots at a South African flying academy where Duggan had also worked.
Duggan, whose wife and six children are also Australian, has been held in a maximum-security prison since his arrest.
His barrister Bernard Collaery told the court on Thursday that Duggan would argue he renounced his US citizenship in January 2012 and was not a US citizen at the time of two of the offences alleged in a US indictment.