Duggan Remains Imprisoned Without Charge After 1000 Days, to Satisfy Our Imperial Masters

Australian citizen Daniel Duggan has, as of last Friday 18 July 2025, clocked up a debilitating 1,000 days in various NSW maximum security correctional facilities, without one local criminal charge levelled against him. Indeed, the father-of-six Australian kids has been held on remand at the behest of the US government, in circumstances that appear to be all about the cold war against China optics.

AFP officers took Duggan, now 56, into custody on 21 October 2022, and he wasn’t informed why until a 2017 District Court of Columbia grand jury indictment was produced weeks later. This charges him with US offences of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering in relation to the main offences: two counts of violating a US arms embargo on China in the form of flight training services.

This left the Duggans and associates stumped, as in 2012, when Dan had been providing training to a variety of nationals, including Chinese, at the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), all and sundry western ex-military pilots were providing flight training services around the planet, and Dan certainly wasn’t training Chinese military personnel as is now suggested.

The sealing of the 2017 US Duggan indictment coincided with a shift in the West casting China as adversary. So, in 2022, at the same time as the AFP were agreeing to imprison Duggan, an Australian citizen since 2012, on behalf of the US, the UK defence department decided to conduct a review into their own ex-military pilots, even though up until then, it had never been an issue.

Advantageous afterthoughts

“Please prime minister and attorney general, enough is enough, you need to help your fellow Aussies” said Dan’s wife, Saffrine Duggan, in a recorded message last Friday. “Today, my husband, an Aussie citizen, Dan Duggan, has now been locked up in maximum security for a thousand days, with no Australian charges and awaiting extradition to the US.”

“Surely that can’t stand in free Australia. Surely Dan, me and our six kids have been failed by our Australian government,” Saffrine continued. “The allegations against Dan are 13 years old, are politically motivated, and they don’t stack up.”

Many supporters of Duggan can remember that in 2010 the practice of ex-military pilots training foreign nationals didn’t raise an eyebrow. Back then, the suggestion that an ex-military fighter pilot from the west would train Chinese nationals would neither cause a stir. But over recent years this has all changed, as China is now threatening the economic hegemony of the United States.

Australian intelligence was well aware that Australian pilots and specifically, Duggan were involved in the practice and it wasn’t a concern. As the UK announced it would review whether its ex-military pilots were providing this training at the same time that Duggan was being taken into custody in 2022, further reveals how novel the idea that such employment would be an issue was at that time.

A fresh attorney’s opinion

Following Duggan’s October 2022 arrest, former attorney general Mark Dreyfus greenlighted the extradition process to commence on 28 December 2022, right in between Christmas and New Years, while on 20 December 2024, the now ex-chief lawmaker gave his final approval in time again for the festive season, after a NSW magistrate granted court approval for extradition in May 2024.

The new Australian attorney general Michelle Rowland could, if she assessed the case of the Australian who’s been remanded for over 1,000 days without charges due to providing flight training to some Chinese nationals, whom he and TFASA deny had anything to do with the military, step in at any point and end the extradition. Many people are waiting on Rowland to address the issue at all.

Duggan’s legal team, led by renowned barrister Bernard Collaery, provided an 89 page submission to Dreyfus last August outlining why the case does not stack up, and such are the stark anomalies surrounding it that AG Rowland would be doing the entire nation a favour if she stepped in and gave her fresh opinion on the matter.

Dual criminality can be fixed

The thing about extraditing a person from Australia is that under section 19 of the Extradition Act 1988 (Cth), extradition can only occur if dual criminality is met at the time that the request has been made, so this means the unlawful behaviour that the individual stands charged with overseas must appear on the local Australian books at time of request in order for the process to proceed.

But this was not the case, at least, when the 2017 US grand jury indictment was sealed, as at that time there was no equivalent to the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) law that banned ex-military pilots training Chinese nationals, however by the time the request was made in late 2022, there was a local federal law banning the practice.

Rowland may want to take a look at the Collaery submission to Dreyfus prior to dismissing the case altogether, as it points out that a US affidavit attached to the 2017 indictment outlines that the grand jurors requested a tolling period, or a pause to the five year statute of limitations relating to the alleged crimes in the indictment, during the jury process in relation to Duggan.

The grand jury was granted a 629 day tolling period, which commenced on 8 August 2016, and Australia provided its response on 14 March 2018. The submission suggests this tolling period and request was all about ensuring that dual criminality would be met if the White House went ahead with the Duggan extradition.

In his case, dual criminality was met via section 83.3 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), which contains the crime of providing military-style training involving a foreign principal, and it carries 20 years imprisonment. But this law was passed on 28 June 2018, via the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2018, long after the indictment was sealed.

The reprieve

“Why won’t our government advocate for us, or at least, have a good look at the facts,” Saffrine Duggan continued last Friday. “I’ve written to our new attorney general asking her to examine the facts of the case and learn what we already know: that Dan and our family should not be in this situation.”

Dan is set to appeal the decision to extradite to the US on 26 August: that is, of course, if new attorney general Michelle Rowland doesn’t take the time to review the case and grant a reprieve.

Not only is Saffrine battling to see her husband’s extradition to the US dropped, but she’s also undergoing litigation in the US court system, as Washington has employed the assistance of the AFP in implementing a restraining order on a NSW south coast property of which she owns and had been attempting to sell to cover legal fees, as the US claims it was purchased with the proceeds of crime.

“Australia should be a place of strength and freedom, independence and justice. I simply want our political leaders to prove that by sending Dan home to his family,” the mother of six kids said in conclusion. “Also, I want to thank all the people who continue to have hope by supporting us and believing that justice can prevail.”

Please donate to the Free Dan Duggan Chuffed fund, the MyCause fund or directly to the Free Dan Duggan campaign.