Ex-US pilot ‘suffering’ in Australian cell amid Chinese training charges, wife says
- Saffrine Duggan says her husband Daniel is suffering the harshest prison classification in Australia despite having no prior convictions
- Daniel Duggan was arrested in October last year and was accused of illegally providing military training to pilots working for China
Saffrine Duggan said her husband Daniel Duggan had already been kept 115 days in a “tiny cell” in Sydney’s Silverwater Correctional Complex because of US charges that had yet to be heard in court.
“He is suffering the harshest possible prison classification in Australia as an ‘extreme high risk restricted inmate’ despite having no prior [or current] convictions,” she said in a statement.
“This is unprecedented and an affront to Australia’s rule of law and manipulation of the Australian legal system by the United States, at the expense of the Australian taxpayer,” she said.
Having already filed a complaint with Australia’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Saffrine Duggan said a further complaint would be filed with the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
“The manner and circumstances behind this prosecution of Dan are something you would expect to find in an authoritarian country, but not in a democratic Australia where its citizens expect a more fair and balanced equal application of the law and the overriding principle of a ‘fair go’ for all,” she said.
