Former US Marine pilot Daniel Duggan arrested in Australia worked with Chinese hacker, says lawyer

Duggan is in a maximum-security prison in Australia fighting extradition on US charges of training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers

Although convicted defence hacker Su Bin ‘may have had improper connection to (Chinese) agents this was unknown to our client’, said lawyer Bernard Collaery

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Daniel Duggan is accused of illegally providing military training to pilots working for China. Photo: Handout

Published: 11:39pm, 12 May 2024

A former US Marine pilot fighting extradition from Australia on US charges of training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers, unknowingly worked with a Chinese hacker, his lawyer said.

Daniel Duggan, 55, a naturalised Australian citizen, feared requests by Western intelligence agencies for sensitive information were putting his family at risk, the lawyer said in a legal filing seen by Reuters.

The lawyer’s filing supports Reuters reporting linking Duggan to convicted Chinese defence hacker Su Bin.

Duggan denies the allegations that he broke US arms control laws. He has been in an Australian maximum-security prison since his 2022 arrest after returning from six years working in Beijing.

US authorities found correspondence with Duggan on electronic devices seized from Su Bin, Duggan’s lawyer Bernard Collaery said in the March submission to Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who will decide whether to surrender Duggan to the US after a magistrate hears Duggan’s extradition case.

Former US Marines pilot Daniel Duggan poses for a picture in this undated picture. Photo: Handout via Reuters

The case will be heard in a Sydney court this month, two years after his arrest in rural Australia at a time when Britain was warning its former military pilots not to work for China.