MELBOURNE, Australia (VOF) — An Australian judge sentenced a former army lawyer to almost six years in prison on Tuesday for leaking to the media classified information that exposed allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.
David McBride, 60, was sentenced in a court in the capital, Canberra, to five years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to three charges including theft and sharing with members of the press documents classified as secret. He had faced a potential life sentence.
Justice David Mossop ordered McBride to serve 27 months in prison before he can be considered for release on parole.
Rights advocates argue that McBride’s conviction and sentencing before any alleged war criminal he helped expose reflected a lack of whistleblower protections in Australia.
A 2020 military report confirmed Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers, and civilians, recommending 19 current and former soldiers for criminal investigation.
The Office of the Special Investigator, established in 2021, is working with police to build cases against elite SAS and Commando Regiments troops who served in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2016.
Last year, former SAS trooper Oliver Schulz was charged with a war crime, accused of fatally shooting a noncombatant in Uruzgan province in 2012.
Also last year, a civil court found that Australia’s most decorated living war veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, likely unlawfully killed four Afghans, though he has not faced criminal charges.
Daniela Gavshon, Human Rights Watch’s director in Australia, criticized McBride’s sentencing, arguing it underscores the inadequacy of Australia’s whistleblower laws and their lack of public interest exemptions.
“The conviction of David McBride, rather than the accused soldiers, stains Australia’s reputation,” Gavshon said. “His imprisonment will deter others from striving for transparency and accountability, essential pillars of democracy.
McBride’s lawyer Mark Davis said he planned to file an appeal against the severity of the sentence.
McBride addressed his supporters as he walked his dog to the front door of the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court to be sentenced.
“I’ve never been so proud to be an Australian as today. I may have broken the law, but I did not break my oath to the people of Australia and the soldiers that keep us safe,” McBride told the cheering crowd.
McBride’s documents formed the basis of an Australian Broadcasting Corp. seven-part television series in 2017 that contained war crime allegations including Australian Special Air Service Regiment soldiers killing unarmed Afghan men and children in 2013.
Police raided the ABC’s Sydney headquarters in 2019 in search of evidence of a leak, but decided against charging the two reporters responsible for the investigation.
In sentencing, Mossop said he did not accept McBride’s explanation that he thought a court would vindicate him for acting in the public interest.
McBride’s argument that his suspicions that the higher echelons of the Australian Defense Force were engaged in criminal activity obliged him to disclose classified papers “didn’t reflect reality,” Mossop said.