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Five Dead After Man Drives Into Crowd in China
Daniel Duggan: US Formally Requests Ex-Marines' Extradition From Australia
Former US Top Gun Pilot Arrested Over Fears He Worked For Chinese Airforce BBC News 18 DEC 2022. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...331000x667.jpg The US has asked Australia to extradite a former marine accused of breaking American arms control laws by training Chinese fighter pilots. https://fharbor.com/wp-content/uploa...ing-herald.jpg Daniel Duggan, a former US citizen, has been in custody since his arrest in Australia in October. Mr Duggan says he hasn't broken any laws and his lawyer argues the charges are politically motivated. Nations including Australia and the UK are warning air force personnel against taking similar lucrative contracts. Mr Duggan is facing four charges in the US over "military training" they say he provided to Chinese pilots at a "test flying academy" in South Africa more than a decade ago. Reuters earlier this week reported the contents of Mr Duggan's indictment, which claimed he did not seek authorisation from the US government to provide military training to China, despite the US State Department informing him by email in 2008 that he had to do so to train a foreign air force. The former pilot, who is now an Australian citizen and has renounced his US citizenship, was arrested two months ago in Orange, New South Wales, at the request of the US. Mr Duggan's lawyer, Denis Miralis, said it would be a "miscarriage of justice" if he was sent to face a trial in the US. Australia should oppose extradition, he says, because there is no equivalent to the charges in Australian law. "Australia does not have an arms embargo on China, Australia has not sanctioned China, therefore the extradition should fail on the basis it does not meet the requirements of dual criminality," he said. But Australia is also cracking down on the practice. Its defence minister last month announced a review of secrecy polices in the country's defence force after reports former Australian military personnel were being targeted to provide training. "Let me be clear: Australians who work or have worked for the government in any capacity... who come into possession of the nation's secrets, have an obligation to maintain those secrets beyond their employment," Richard Marles said. In October the UK also issued an intelligence alert to warn former military pilots against working for the Chinese military. Mr Miralis also said he would file a complaint with the UN Human Rights Commission about Mr Duggan's "inhumane" treatment in custody, claiming he had been denied medical treatment. Mr Duggan's matter will return to a Sydney court on 20 December, five days before the Australian government's deadline to decide on the extradition request. |
Re: Five Dead After Man Drives Into Crowd in China
China: Five Dead After Man Drives Into Crowd in Guangzhou
Chinese police have arrested a man who drove a car into pedestrians in Guangzhou, killing five people and injuring 13 others. BBC News.12 JAN 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...8270957_gz.jpg The crash took place on Wednesday during the evening rush hour at a busy junction in the southern city of 19 million. "He deliberately drove into the people who were waiting for the traffic light. He rammed the car into them maliciously. After that, he made a U-turn and hit people again," an eyewitness told local outlet Hongxin News. "He wasn't driving too quickly, but some people couldn't run away in time because they wouldn't have known he was hitting people deliberately." The man also reportedly drove into a traffic police officer and his motorcycle, but the officer managed to escape. One widely circulated clip shows a young girl lying on the ground at the scene of the incident, while a woman said to be her mother is seen by her side wailing. Another eyewitness described the chaos of the aftermath on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. The person said that an hour after the incident, the site was still filled with ambulances and traffic police "and they had not moved all the injured and the bodies from the scene". "The scene was too tragic and I couldn't bear seeing it. I felt so sad that I wanted to throw up whenever I heard the siren of the ambulance," the person said. The incident has sparked public anger, with many expressing sorrow that it happened in the lead-up to Chinese New Year, a time for family reunions. "The victims could be a girl who dressed up meticulously to go on a date… It could be a food deliveryman who earned five yuan after rushing an order. It could be a father who wanted to go home and have dinner with children. It could be a child who was happily shopping," one Weibo user wrote. Many noted that the man drove a luxury car and had thrown money into the air, and asked if he came from a rich and powerful family. The incident quickly became a trending topic on Weibo on Wednesday, but it later disappeared from the "hot searches" list, leading users to accuse the platform of censorship. There have been similar recent incidents. In February 2022, a driver ploughed a mini truck into people in the southern province of Fujian, killing three and injuring nine. Earlier this week, a hotel guest in Shanghai deliberately drove his car into the lobby following an argument with staff. Nobody was injured in that incident. |
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