IPAN condemns this government for falling into line yet again with the USA government- FINALLY for Julian Assange his freedom from Belmarsh came (at a huge cost) but for citizen Dan Duggan and his family this is a terrible blow. Please support his campaign to reverse this decision from our AG. Join IPAN get organized to work for a peaceful just and sustainable future www.ipan.org.au
In a short statement delivered to the family of Australian pilot Dan Duggan on Friday, 20 December 2024, Federal attorney general Mark Dreyfus explained that he’d determined to extradite the father-of-six Australian kids to “the United States to face prosecution for the offences of which he is accused”, and the extradition will take place sometime after next Monday, 30 December and before 17 February.
One of the starkest anomalies involved in the case against the former US Marine pilot of 12 years is Australian law requires that a domestic offence covers the same criminal act a foreign country seeks extradition over, but the local crime that facilitates Duggan’s extradition wasn’t enacted until 2018, six years after the alleged crimes took place and a year after the US indictment was sealed.
NSW Magistrate Daniel Reiss greenlighted extradition of the former US Marine pilot to the United States back in May. However, the extradition process requires the AG to sign-off on the commencement of any extradition, and, as he has just done, to provide the final nod for an extradition to proceed.
Dreyfus has waited until Christmas, a month after federal parliament closed, to deliver his decision, it would seem, because this time of year sees much of the population on holiday and caught up in the festive season, so the timing results in the least political fallout, as most constituents aren’t watching.
Mind you, for Dan’s six Australian kids and his wife, Saffrine, to receive this decision just days before Christmas is highly traumatising.
After Dan’s barrister Bernard Collaery provided Dreyfus with a submission on 23 August, outlining why the case against his client should have been dropped – and those injustices are many and glaring – it’s been open for the attorney to have issued this decision at any point since.
Indeed, SCL featured an article last month, speculating that the reason the nation’s chief lawmaker hadn’t made the decision by then was that he might have been waiting until the Christmas/New Years break to deliver it, just as he did when approving the extradition process, as that announcement was made to the public on 28 December 2022.
Yet, for those continuing to pay attention, it appears that for the AG at least, this callous act of political expediency outweighs any undue harms that the delivery of his undesirable Christmas message might have upon the Duggans, and as well as upon the father himself, who, after 26 months, is continuing to be held in prolonged isolation on remand without any local charges.
Read the whole article https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/attorney-generals-christmas-gift-to-dan-duggan-you-will-be-extradited-to-the-us/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=week-1