Dan Duggan became an Australian citizen in 2012. He has an Australian wife and six Australian-born children. Photo: freedanduggan.org.
Dan Duggan and his family were dealt a blow by the Federal Court last month, but they will continue their fight to prevent the father-of-six from being extradited to the US.
It has been alleged that Mr Duggan – an Australian citizen and former US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier pilot – breached US arms laws by training Chinese pilots in South Africa more than a decade ago.
The federal government granted a request to arrest and extradite him to the US to face four charges, and the ACT Federal Court dismissed his attempt to review this decision in April 2026.
On Monday (18 May), Mr Duggan’s wife, Saffrine Duggan, announced her family would appeal the court’s decision, saying “We need to ensure that Aussies are protected”.
“Dan was an Australian citizen working in South Africa in 2012,” she said.
“He broke no law, and the allegations against him were not a crime in Australia.
“And yet, the Australian Government has approved an extradition request to send an Aussie citizen, my husband, and father of six kids, to the United States.”
She said her family had been stripped of their property and left financially devastated by their ongoing fight for justice.
“We thank all of our supporters for sticking with us and we appeal to the government to intervene,” Ms Duggan said.
“Dan, a father with no criminal record, no violent history, a man who served his country and found happiness in life in Australia, has been locked up in maximum security for 1300 days with no Australian charges. He was subjected to 19 months of solitary confinement.
“It’s time for Dan to come home.”
After the Federal Court dismissed Mr Duggan’s application in April, Collaery Lawyers law clerk Lynn Stocker, a member of his legal team, said the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, could intervene.
“Now it’s a decision for the Prime Minister, whether he wants to send an Australian citizen, who’s already been in prison for three-and-a-half years, into the hands of the Trump administration, which has taken a close interest in this matter,” she said at the time.
A date for the hearing of the appeal will be set in the future.
Mr Duggan moved to Australia when he left the US military in 2002 and became a citizen in 2012.
That same year, he was employed by Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) for a short time.
He worked as the general manager of a consultancy, working with the Chinese aviation industry from 2017 to 2020 and continued to work in China until shortly before his arrest in 2022.
Mr Duggan has been charged with two counts of violating the US’s Arms Export Control Act and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, all of which carry maximum sentences of 20 years’ jail.
He has also been charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act.
These four charges are alleged to have been committed between November 2009 and November 2012 in relation to training pilots in South Africa.
Original Article published by Albert McKnight on Region Canberra.
