Daniel Duggan, a former U.S. Marine pilot facing extradition from Australia over allegations of training Chinese military pilots, reportedly collaborated unknowingly with a Chinese hacker, according to his lawyer.
Daniel Duggan, 55, a naturalized Australian citizen, expressed concerns that requests for sensitive information from Western intelligence agencies were jeopardizing his family’s safety, as stated in a legal filing.
His lawyer’s submission supports previous Reuters reports linking Daniel Duggan to convicted Chinese defense hacker Su Bin.
Daniel Duggan denies the accusations of violating U.S. arms control laws and has been held in an Australian maximum-security prison since his arrest in 2022 after returning from a six-year stint in Beijing.
According to Daniel Duggan’s lawyer Bernard Collaery, U.S. authorities discovered correspondence between Daniel Duggan and Su Bin on electronic devices seized from the latter. Bernard Collaery’s submission to Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus highlights this evidence as part of Daniel Duggan’s extradition proceedings.
Daniel Duggan’s case will be heard in a Sydney court this month, following his arrest in rural Australia two years ago, coinciding with Britain’s cautionary advisory against former military personnel working for China.
Su Bin, arrested in Canada in 2014, pleaded guilty in 2016 to stealing U.S. military aircraft designs through hacking. He is listed as one of seven co-conspirators with Duggan in the extradition request.
According to Bernard Collaery, Daniel Duggan knew Su Bin as an employment intermediary for the Chinese state aviation company AVIC, asserting that the hacking case is “totally unrelated to our client.”
Bernard Collaery’s submission also indicates that messages retrieved from Su Bin’s electronic devices revealed he funded Duggan’s travel from Australia to Beijing in May 2012. Duggan allegedly sought assistance from Su Bin in sourcing Chinese aircraft parts for his Top Gun tourist flight business in Australia.
Despite ASIO and U.S. Navy criminal investigators being aware of Duggan’s activities, his lawyers argue against extradition, contending that there is no evidence proving the Chinese pilots he trained were military personnel. They also assert that Duggan became an Australian citizen in January 2012, before the alleged offenses took place.
The United States government contends that Duggan did not renounce his U.S. citizenship until 2016.
