{"id":609912,"date":"2026-04-16T04:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/609912\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T04:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T04:09:11","slug":"ex-top-gun-pilot-daniel-duggan-loses-appeal-against-extradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/609912\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Top Gun pilot Daniel Duggan loses appeal against extradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former US<\/a> fighter pilot accused of training Chinese<\/a> soldiers is set to be extradited from Australia after his appeal was dismissed after a years-long legal battle.<\/p>\n

Daniel Duggan has spent three-and-a-half years in custody over allegations he breached US arms-trafficking laws by training Chinese pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012.<\/p>\n

He was arrested at the behest of the US in 2022 while at a supermarket in regional NSW<\/a>, where he lived with his wife Saffrine and six children.\"\"\/Former US military pilot and Australian citizen Daniel Duggan. (Supplied Nine)<\/p>\n

The Duggan family’s years-long fight against extradition was dealt a heavy blow in December 2024 when then-attorney general Mark Dreyfus approved the extradition.<\/p>\n

They challenged the decision in the Federal Court<\/a>, which handed down its ruling today in the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

Justice James Stellios dismissed the appeal and ordered Duggan to pay the government’s costs in a brief but bruising decision.<\/p>\n

An appeal against the judge’s ruling can be lodged within 28 days.<\/p>\n

Duggan’s lawyers argued the offence he is accused of was not classified as an offence in Australia at the time, which is contrary to the requirements of an extradition treaty.<\/p>\n

\"FormerDuggan was held in prison for more than three years as he fought the extradition bid. (Nine)<\/p>\n

An offence must have been criminal in both the requesting and requested countries for an extradition to be legally permissible.<\/p>\n

Ms Duggan gathered with supporters to hear the decision being handed down.<\/p>\n

She has been open about the crippling financial toll the legal battle has taken on her family, who estimate their legal bills amount to about half a million dollars.<\/p>\n

Duggan has been refused Legal Aid, while an injunction placed on his family’s half-built house means they can neither sell it nor live in it.<\/p>\n

He had been kept in a maximum security prison in central NSW around 100km from his family, Ms Duggan previously revealed.<\/p>\n

Charges and an indictment were first filed against the Australian citizen in a sealed court case during US President Donald Trump<\/a>‘s first term.<\/p>\n

Duggan previously wrote in a letter from prison that he believed his activities were not illegal and Australian and US intelligence services knew of his work.<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former US fighter pilot accused of training Chinese soldiers is set to be extradited from Australia after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-609912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}