Australian pilot Daniel Duggan’s conditions of detention are “extreme” and “inhumane,” a clinical psychologist has said, while his wife says his 128 days of isolated incarceration have left him “a shadow of himself.”
Saffrine Duggan has lodged a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee, arguing that her husband’s segregated, maximum security imprisonment is unjustified and causing him severe psychological distress.
“I was shocked when I saw Dan recently,” Saffrine Duggan said. “He’s trying to fight this injustice, but he’s a shadow of himself. He’s extremely gaunt and lost a lot of weight. His face is shallow and hollow, like he’s in a concentration camp.”
Photo: AP
“They are trying to break him by slamming him in solitary confinement and maximum security, surrounded by convicted terrorists, murderers, pedophiles. There is screaming day and night. They want to break the man I love. An innocent man with a large family who loves him dearly,” she said.
Daniel Duggan, a former US marine pilot, was arrested in October last year at the request of the US government, which is seeking his extradition on charges of arms trafficking and money laundering more than a decade ago.
The father of six school-aged children, Daniel Duggan, 54, denies the charges and is fighting his extradition from prison, a process that could take months, even years to resolve.
He has not seen any of his children since he was arrested more than four months ago, and has been allowed to speak with them rarely by telephone on six-minute phone calls.
“We live under a black cloud, as we carry a heavy heart every single minute of the day,” Saffrine Duggan said.
“My son re-reads a letter sent to him from dad saying how much he loves him and how proud he is of him, as [he] sits at breakfast crying, then wiping his tears away before he goes to school. We have five birthdays this month in our family and the only present that everyone wants is their father home.”
Despite never having been convicted of a crime in any country, Daniel Duggan has been classified as an Extreme High Risk Restricted and Protection Non-Association prisoner.
He is being held in a 2m-by-4m cell at Silverwater Correctional Complex in the west of Sydney.
“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 Duggan said.
The complaint lodged with the UN’s human rights committee says that Australia’s detention of Daniel Duggan contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by: failing to protect Daniel Duggan from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; failing to segregate him from convicted prisoners; violating his right to adequately prepare his defense; and violating of his right to confidential communication.
The complaint states that a clinical psychologist who assessed Daniel Duggan in prison described his conditions of detention as “extreme” and “inhumane,” and that — having never had mental health issues — he was at risk of major depressive disorder.
The UN Human Rights Committee, an independent panel of international human rights experts, can respond requesting Australia take measures to “avoid irreparable damage” to the alleged victim.
The US alleges that Daniel Duggan, a former US citizen and naturalized Australian, trained Chinese pilots to land jets on aircraft carriers, in defiance of arms trafficking laws, and engaged in a conspiracy to launder money. Those claims have not been tested in court.
Daniel Duggan served more than a decade flying in the US Marine Corps, rising to the rank of major and working as a military tactical flight instructor.
He left the marines in 2002 and moved to Australia, becoming an Australian citizen in 2012 and renouncing his US citizenship.
A 2017 US grand jury indictment, unsealed in December last year, alleges that Daniel Duggan received at least A$116,000 (US$78,010) in payments from 2011 to 2012 for his work training Chinese pilots at a test flight academy “based in South Africa, with a presence in the People’s Republic of China.”
The indictment alleges that Daniel Duggan “provided military training to People’s Republic of China military pilots and instruction on the tactics, techniques and procedures associated with launching aircraft from, and landing aircraft on, a naval aircraft carrier.”
Duggan rejects all charges against him as being of a political character and politically motivated, Saffrine Duggan said.
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