Former US Marine pilot loses appeal against extradition from Australia

Daniel Duggan was arrested in 2022 over claims he illegally trained the Chinese military in South Africa. Daniel Duggan: Australian citizen and ex-US Marine pilot loses extradition appeal Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. A selfie of Daniel Duggan and his wife Saffrine Duggan Former US Marine pilot loses appeal against extradition from Australia A former US Marine wanted by Washington over allegations he illegally trained Chinese pilots is set to be extradited, after losing a bid to remain in Australia. Daniel Duggan, 57, was arrested in the regional city of Orange in New South Wales in October 2022 at the request of the US. They claim he broke US arms-trafficking laws by training Chinese fighter pilots in South Africa between 2010 and 2012. Duggan, who denies the claims and is an Australian citizen, appealed the extradition but on Thursday, a Federal Court judge dismissed the case, paving the way for his removal. Outside court, Duggan's wife said she was disappointed by the decision and called on the government to intervene. Details in US court documents allege that Duggan did not ask for permission from the US government to provide military training to Chinese forces. The father-of-six, who has renounced his US citizenship, faces up to 65 years in prison if found guilty of the charges against him. Duggan's lawyer had earlier argued that Australia should oppose the extradition because it did not have an equivalent law covering the US charges, which is a requirement of extradition requests. However, in 2024, the then-Attorney General Mark Dreyfus approved the extradition. Duggan has 28 days to appeal the Federal Court decision, which also included an order to pay the government's costs. Outside court, Saffrine Duggan said her husband - who is being held in a maximum security prison - is "an ordinary Australian going about his business who broke no Australian law". "[It's been] 1,273 days of our family suffering terrible trauma since Dan was arrested in a supermarket car park after dropping our kids at school," Saffrine Duggan said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She added that the years-long case had cost the family about half a million dollars, and they had struggle to fund it after an injunction placed on the family's home meant they couldn't sell it, according the Australian Associated Press. The better-than-expected GDP data comes as Asian countries have been hit hard by the impact of the conflict. BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner explains how the world's second-largest economy fits into the Gulf conflict. China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, says the US naval blockade undermines an "already fragile ceasefire". Alongside her husband, the Duchess of Sussex was speaking to young people in Melbourne about the harms of social media. BBC's Simon Atkinson reports on the potential impact of the blaze, as the government warns of impacts to petrol production. The fire has deepened fears over the nation's petrol supplies amid a global crunch. The 31-year-old woman randomly abducted a three-year-old boy out of the Omaha supermarket at knifepoint, police say. Most Republicans support Trump continuing military operations, but some say they may reassess in a few weeks.