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Urgent plea for UN to help father of six veteran ex Marine, Daniel Duggan, jailed in inhumane conditions for 115 days

Announcement posted by Daniel Duggan 12 Feb 2023

Aussie citizen held in tiny Sydney cell under extreme conditions without conviction

Sunday, February 12th, 2023 

 

  • Downing Centre 9.30am Monday 13 February
  • Saffrine Duggan is not available for further comment

Urgent plea for UN to help father of six veteran, ex Marine, Daniel Duggan, jailed in inhumane conditions for 115 days
Aussie citizen held in tiny Sydney cell under extreme conditions without conviction

 

Sydney, 12 February 2023 –  

 

The family of detained Australian citizen Dan Duggan will petition the United Nations Human Rights Committee to urgently step in to stop his inhumane treatment. The father of six children has been held in a tiny cell in Sydney under extreme conditions without any conviction for 115 days, based on unproven charges from the United States.

 

Dan’s wife, Saffrine Duggan, said it was unacceptable that in an apparently free society like Australia where citizens are innocent until proven guilty, that her husband is being held in a 2m x 4m cell at Silverwater.

 

He is suffering the harshest possible prison classification in Australia as an “extreme high risk restricted inmate” despite having no prior (or current) convictions.

 

Dan’s unfair treatment has already resulted in a formal complaint to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and will now become the subject of a complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

“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,” Saffrine said, from her father’s property in Orange, New South Wales.

 

“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.”

 

The Department of Justice filed this indictment in 2017 (based on strongly disputed allegations from between 2010 to 2012) during the Trump administration.

 

Dan was arrested in the parking lot by Nesthe Australian plain-clothes Federal Police, on the 21st  of October 2022 after dropping the kids of at school while at his local supermarket in Orange, New South Wales.

 

Yet Dan’s legal team did not formally receive any details of the indictment until 22 December 2022, the last working business day of the year and three days before Christmas.

 

Dan did not receive any documentation about his charges until 28 December 2022, 69 days after his arrest. This is despite the legal requirement to provide the accused with details of the charged against them within 60 days under the extradition treaty between the US and Australia.

 

“All Australian citizens and permanent residents should be very worried about the dangerous and long-lasting legal precedent that such an extradition would create if it were successful. This also undermines justified extradition requests of serious crimes which are not of political character,” Saffrine said.

 

“The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, have the power to stop this inhumane treatment, the extradition and persecution of an Australian citizen, in support Australian sovereignty and our dignity as a nation.

 

“Dan strenuously rejects all charges against him as being of a political character, and politically motivated. His indictment contains half-truths, falsehoods and gross embellishments.”

 

Saffrine said the treaty under which Dan’s extradition requests have been lodged by the FBI and agreed by Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is not being used properly.

 

The treaty specifically states that alleged crimes under its provisions of the should not be of a “political character”, should require dual criminality - which is not the case in this instance -  and should be in Australia’s national interests.

 

Dan was born in Boston, USA, the youngest of a large family of 13 children. He permanently immigrated to Australia in 2002, after serving 12 years honourably in the US Marines. In January  2012, Dan proudly gained Australian citizenship.

 

In order to make a 100 percent commitment to Australia, he relinquished his US citizenship - not out of spite to the US but out of his love and respect for Australia.

 

Dan is happily married to Australian-born Saffrine and is the proud father of his six Australian children, aged between 5 and 18.

 

Despite the overwhelming support the family has received from around Australia and the world, Saffrine said they are struggling to make ends meet in the expensive legal battle to fight the allegations

 

“We desperately seek ongoing support and respectfully ask people demand that our government protects and defends the rule of law, due process, and Australian sovereignty,” Saffrine said. 

 

“Please speak out against this inhumane detention, and politically motivated and unjust prosecution.”

 

“Please also sign the petition at and https://www.change.org/p/release-my-husband-australian-daniel-duggan-and-refuse-his-extradition-to-the-us/u/31253627 consider a donation to assist our family to fight these unfounded allegations and free Dan from jail." continues Saffrine.

 

Ends

 

Media contacts:
 

Louise Greene: 0479 101 274   email Louise@themediaspecialist.com.au
Warwick Ponder: 0408 410 593

Media Contacts

Louise Greene

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