Ex-US Marine Daniel Duggan, who labored in China, was arrested in the identical week the UK warned about Beijing’s recruitment of army pilot trainers.
A former US fighter pilot detained in Australia beneath a veil of secrecy will “vigorously” combat efforts to have him extradited to the USA, his lawyer has stated.
The pilot, Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, was arrested in a rural a part of New South Wales state in October by Australian Federal Police performing on a US request for his arrest.
Duggan had arrived in Australia from China weeks earlier than and had interacted with Australian intelligence businesses, his lawyer stated on Friday. Particulars of the US arrest warrant and the costs he faces are sealed, his lawyer stated.
Duggan’s arrest on October 21 got here the identical week the UK authorities issued a uncommon warning about China’s recruitment of retired British army pilots.
The Australian authorities confirmed Duggan was arrested at Washington’s request, though US authorities have refused to say extra and the costs stay unknown.
“He denies having breached any US regulation, any Australian regulation, any worldwide regulation,” his lawyer, Dennis Miralis stated outdoors a Sydney court docket on Friday.
Duggan might be moved to a most safety jail, and didn’t search bail, his lawyer stated. The case was adjourned till November 28.
Miralis had informed the court docket he would lodge a criticism with Australia’s inspector-general of intelligence about issues which contact on Australia’s nationwide safety.
Exterior court docket, Miralis informed media that Duggan, who’s now an Australian citizen, had returned from China “a couple of weeks previous to his arrest and within the intervening interval quite a few interactions occurred with these businesses that the inspector-general of intelligence has the capability to analyze”.
Miralis didn’t title the particular businesses, present particulars on what was beneath investigation or Duggan’s alleged position in it.
He stated the US shouldn’t make an extradition request to Australia till this criticism was resolved.
Below Australia’s extradition treaty with the US, an extradition request have to be made inside 60 days of arrest.
“Mr Duggan in the intervening time is just not accused of something beneath Australian regulation. It’s essential to grasp the authorized system in Australia has not but seized jurisdiction of the matter, we’re extra within the space of worldwide relations, and it’s a determination for the USA State Division to find out whether or not or not it needs to ship an extradition request to Australia,” Miralis stated.
Duggan would individually complain that China had interfered together with his human rights and freedom of motion in China, he added.
Australia’s Lawyer-Normal’s Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from the Reuters information company, nor did the Inspector-Normal of Intelligence and Safety (IGIS), an impartial oversight workplace.
Duggan is a “well-regarded” fighter jet pilot, a fellow ex-Marine informed Agence France-Presse, and had just lately labored in China coaching industrial flight crew.
Duggan’s firm web site says he spent greater than a decade flying within the US Marine Corps, reaching the rank of main and dealing as a tactical flight teacher.
He ran an journey flight firm in Australia after leaving the Marines, then moved to Beijing in about 2014, firm data present.
China’s overseas ministry has denied any data of the employment of British pilots after media within the UK reported greater than 30 pilots had accepted profitable affords to coach China’s army.