Former Marines pilot who worked in China to be extradited to U.S.

Daniel Duggan, a naturalized Australian, faces charges including breaking U.S. arms control law by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers.

SYDNEY — Australia on Monday approved a United States extradition request for former U.S. Marines pilot Daniel Duggan, who faces charges including breaking U.S. arms control law by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers.

Duggan, 55, a naturalised Australian citizen, 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.

Duggan’s lawyers have argued in court there is no evidence the Chinese pilots he trained were military, and he was no longer a U.S. citizen at the time of the alleged offences. He renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2016 at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, backdated to 2012 on a certificate, they said.

Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said he had determined Duggan should be extradited to the United States to face prosecution, after a New South Wales magistrate in May found him eligible for surrender.

“Mr Duggan was given the opportunity to provide representations as to why he should not be surrendered to the United States. In arriving at my decision, I took into consideration all material in front of me,” Dreyfus said in a statement.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/former-marines-pilot-china-extradited-australia-rcna185191

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