A Federal Court judge on Thursday dismissed Daniel Duggan’s extradition appeal, clearing the way for the former US Marine pilot to be removed from Australia over US allegations that he trained Chinese fighter pilots in South Africa.
The ruling leaves Duggan, 57, with 28 days to seek another appeal, while the court also ordered him to pay the government’s costs. He faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted on the charges the United States brought against him.
Duggan was arrested in Orange, New South Wales, in October 2022 at the request of the United States. American authorities say he broke US arms-trafficking laws between 2010 and 2012 by training Chinese fighter pilots in South Africa without permission from the US government. Duggan denies the allegations and has renounced his US citizenship.
The case has moved through Australia’s legal and political system since then, with then-Attorney General Mark Dreyfus approving extradition in 2024. The federal court ruling on Thursday is the clearest sign yet that the prosecution of Daniel Duggan is now heading toward the point his lawyers have been trying to avoid: transfer to the United States.
Outside court, Duggan’s wife said she was disappointed by the decision and urged the government to intervene. Saffrine Duggan has said her husband was “an ordinary Australian going about his business who broke no Australian law,” and described the family’s ordeal as “1,273 days of our family suffering terrible trauma since Dan was arrested in a supermarket car park after dropping our kids at school.”
The legal fight has already cost the family about half a million dollars, according to their account, and Duggan is being held in a maximum security prison. The dispute now turns on whether his remaining appeal window can delay removal, or whether Australia will send him to face the US case that has shadowed him for more than two years.
