The Extradition hearing of Dan Duggan, an Australian citizen and father of six who has been held in solitary confinement for 19 months in breach of U.N. conventions at the request of the United States, will be held this Friday in a Magistrate’s Court in Sydney.
Astonishing details have emerged of his relationship with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) – contact Duggan says occurred over many years both directly and through an intermediary, before, during and after he was in China where he was held arbitrarily for seven years.
A recent submission to the Attorney General from his lawyer Bernard Collaery (in a typo the document is dated March 2023 instead of 2024) and a letter to the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) Christopher Jessup from Dan Duggan around the same time, have been obtained by Pearls and Irritations.
IGIS is the Authority charged with oversight of Australia’s intelligence services. The former document was also obtained and published by Michael West last week.
The recent letter to IGIS followed a ruling by the Inspector General on Duggan’s earlier complaint about the conduct of ASIO, which was filed before Duggan was provided with the US Indictment, and furnishes supplementary information on his relationship with the intelligence agency.
IGIS had dismissed most of Duggan’s complaints based on available information from Duggan at the time and a response from ASIO, but found some impropriety in ASIO’s behaviour. The full IGIS report is classified so the nature of the impropriety is unknown.
Duggan has been indicted by the US on four Counts – one of conspiracy, two on violations of the Arms Export Control Act, and one of money laundering – in all carrying a maximum penalty of 65 years. According to Collaery’s submission seeking the scrutiny and intervention of the Attorney General, the Indictment is riddled with errors.
The substantive offences relate to a period when Duggan was an Australian not a US citizen – an error of fact according to his lawyers – he became naturalised on 26 January 2012 and under US law consequently automatically lost his US citizenship.
Significantly his case also rests on the argument there is no dual criminality as the alleged offences were not offences under Australian law at the time, and that they are political in nature – that Duggan is a victim of the changed relationship between the US and China, and the US’s desire to demonstrate the repercussions that may await those doing business with a competitor it now regards as an enemy.
Duggan denies he was training military pilots, or using anything other than open source material. He also denies any conspiracy, adding that the alleged conspirators include a low level mechanic but not a much more senior employee Duggan believed was spying for the British.
According to information provided in Collaery’s submission, the aircraft carrier he is alleged to have used to train military pilots was thousands of miles away and not yet released from........