Former US Marine Pilots DETAINed In Australia Faced The Indictment Regarding China's Military Aviation Training

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Joe Gratz)

JAKARTA - Former US Marine pilot Daniel Duggan, who was arrested in Australia, is accused of violating arms control laws, by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers according to charges opened by US courts.

The 2017 indictment says "Duggan provides military training to RRT (Chinese People's Republic of Indonesia) pilots" through South African flight schools on three occasions in 2010 and 2012.

It lists unnamed fellow conspirators, including one South African citizen and one British citizen who is executive of the "South Africa-based flying test pandemic with an presence in the PRC", and a Chinese national who obtained military information for the Chinese military.

Australian police have temporarily detained Duggan in the rural city of Orange at the request of the US Government in October, pending extradition requests from the United States.

Duggan's attorney, Dennis Miralis of Australian law firm Nyman Gibson Miralis, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the indictment.

He previously said Duggan denied violating any law, and was an Australian citizen who had left US citizenship. The District Court of Columbia on Friday opened charges and US warrants for Duggan.

The indictment said Duggan was allegedly contracted directly by unnamed Chinese nationals to provide services to Chinese state-owned companies, including evaluation of Chinese military pilot training, testing naval aviation-related equipment and instructions on tactics related to landing aircraft on aircraft carriers.

Duggan did not ask for authorization from the United States Government to provide military training to China, even though the US State Department had told him via email in 2008, this was necessary to train foreign air forces, he said.

The indictment alleges he frequently traveled between Australia, the United States, China, and South Africa between 2009 and 2012, when he was a US citizen and an Australian citizen.

Duggan allegedly violated the arms embargo imposed in China by the United States, including providing flight services in China in 2010, and providing an assessment of China's aircraft carrier training.

The indictment accuses Chinese citizens of intermediary agreement between South African aviation schools and a Chinese state-owned company to provide aircraft carrier landing training to Chinese military pilots in South Africa and China.

For the training, the Buckeye T-2 aircraft was purchased from US aircraft dealers by providing false information, resulting in the US government issuing an export license.

Duggan faces four charges, including conspiracies to deceive the United States with conspiracies to illegally export defense services to China, conspiracy to launder money and two counts in violation of arms export control measures and international traffic under gun regulations.

Separately, a spokesman said Australia's Attorney General's Department Department "does not comment on extradition matters, until the person is brought to justice on the request for extradition".

Duggan moved to Australia in 2002 after a decade in US Marines, then moved to Beijing in 2014, where he worked as a aviation consultant. He returned to Australia from China a few weeks before he was arrested, according to his lawyer.