New Delhi: Daniel Dugana 55-year-old ex U.S. Marine Corps pilot Naturalized Australian citizen currently fighting extradition from Australia to the United States on training charges Chinese military pilot Landing on an aircraft carrier. According to his attorney, Bernard Collari, Dugan unknowingly worked with a Chinese hacker named Su Bin, who was convicted of stealing U.S. military aircraft designs by hacking major U.S. defense contractors. is convicted.
Dugan has denied accusations that he violated U.S. arms control laws and has been held in an Australian maximum-security prison since his arrest in 2022 after returning from six years working in Beijing.
Legal documents from Collari seen by Reuters showed that U.S. authorities discovered communications between Dugan and Subin on electronic devices seized from the latter. Dugan knew Su Bin as an employment broker for China’s state-owned airline Aviation Industry Corporation of China, which was blacklisted by the United States last year for its ties to the Chinese military.
Messages retrieved from Su Bin’s device showed he paid for Dugan to travel from Australia to Beijing in May 2012, and that Dugan had asked Su Bin to help procure Chinese aircraft for his Top Gun tour flight business in Australia. Component.
Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) and US Naval Criminal Investigative Officers were aware of Dugan’s involvement in AVIC’s pilot training and met with him in Tasmania in December 2012 and February 2013. “An ASIO official suggested that while continuing his mission, Mr Dugan was operating legally in China and may have been able to collect sensitive information.”
Dugan moved to China in 2013 and was banned from leaving the country in 2014. conducted public intelligence contacts that may have harmed U.S. interests.” The safety of his family. “
Dugan’s lawyers opposed extradition, arguing there was no evidence the Chinese pilots he trained were military personnel and that he became an Australian citizen in January 2012, before the alleged crimes took place.
However, the U.S. government maintains that Dugan did not lose his U.S. citizenship until 2016. .
Dugan has denied accusations that he violated U.S. arms control laws and has been held in an Australian maximum-security prison since his arrest in 2022 after returning from six years working in Beijing.
Legal documents from Collari seen by Reuters showed that U.S. authorities discovered communications between Dugan and Subin on electronic devices seized from the latter. Dugan knew Su Bin as an employment broker for China’s state-owned airline Aviation Industry Corporation of China, which was blacklisted by the United States last year for its ties to the Chinese military.
Messages retrieved from Su Bin’s device showed he paid for Dugan to travel from Australia to Beijing in May 2012, and that Dugan had asked Su Bin to help procure Chinese aircraft for his Top Gun tour flight business in Australia. Component.
Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) and US Naval Criminal Investigative Officers were aware of Dugan’s involvement in AVIC’s pilot training and met with him in Tasmania in December 2012 and February 2013. “An ASIO official suggested that while continuing his mission, Mr Dugan was operating legally in China and may have been able to collect sensitive information.”
Dugan moved to China in 2013 and was banned from leaving the country in 2014. conducted public intelligence contacts that may have harmed U.S. interests.” The safety of his family. “
Dugan’s lawyers opposed extradition, arguing there was no evidence the Chinese pilots he trained were military personnel and that he became an Australian citizen in January 2012, before the alleged crimes took place.
However, the U.S. government maintains that Dugan did not lose his U.S. citizenship until 2016. .
