A lawyer says a former United States navy pilot may have been lured from China to Australia as a part of a U.S. plan to extradite himSYDNEY -- A former United States navy pilot accused of coaching Chinese language aviators may have been lured from China to Australia as a part of a U.S. plan …
SYDNEY — A former United States navy pilot accused of coaching Chinese language aviators may have been lured from China to Australia as a part of a U.S. plan to extradite him to his homeland, his lawyer mentioned Monday.
In a 2016 indictment from the U.S. District Courtroom in Washington, D.C., unsealed late 2022, prosecutors say Daniel Duggan conspired with others to offer coaching to Chinese language navy pilots in 2010 and 2012, and probably at different occasions, with out making use of for an acceptable license.
Prosecutors say Duggan acquired about 9 funds totaling round 88,000 Australian {dollars} ($61,000) and worldwide journey from one other conspirator for what was generally described as “private growth coaching.”
Boston-born Duggan, 54, has been in custody in Australia since October and appeared in a Sydney court docket Monday by video hyperlink from a jail cell for a short listening to a couple of U.S. utility to extradite him.
His lawyer, Dennis Miralis, informed reporters outdoors the court docket that Duggan returned from China in 2022 to work in Australia after he acquired an Australian safety clearance for an aviation license. Just a few days after his arrival, the clearance granted by the Australian Safety Intelligence Organisation, the nation’s essential home spy company, was eliminated, Miralis mentioned.
“It’s placing to us {that a} sequence of occasions like that might happen,” Miralis mentioned. “We’re exploring at this stage whether or not he was lured again to Australia by the U.S., the place the U.S. knew he can be in a jurisdiction the place he can be able to being extradited again.”
Duggan served within the U.S. Marines for 12 years earlier than immigrating to Australia in 2002. In January 2012, he gained Australian citizenship, selecting to surrender his U.S. citizenship within the course of.
The indictment says Duggan traveled to the U.S., China and South Africa, and offered some coaching to Chinese language pilots in South Africa.
Duggan has denied the allegations, saying they have been political posturing by the US, which unfairly singled him out.
His subsequent court docket look is about for Could 1.
