Australian military lawyer, David McBride jailed for exposing war crimes

David McBride, an Australian military lawyer turned whistleblower, has been sentenced to 5 years and eight months prison without parole for two years and three months for leaking classified military documents depicting war crimes to ABC News.

The classified leaked documents, however, revealed the involvement of the Australian government in crimes committed in the Afghanistan war, leaving David the first Australian whistleblower sentenced to prison.

This leak formed the basis of Afghan Files reporting. David pleaded guilty to three charges before the ACT Supreme Court Justice David Mossop, including theft and sharing documents classified as secrets with journalists.

Following his sentence announcement, his legal team, with the lead representative, Mark Davis, have decided to pursue an appeal battle, one bordering on whistleblower protection in Australian law.

We now, thanks to some recent social media activities … we have the funds to appeal, and we mean to do so, Mr Davis said.

Meanwhile, Justice Mossop described McBride’s behaviour as “a gross breach of the trust proposed in him” as a legal officer in a sensitive position within the Australian Defence Force.

That is an aggravated feature of his offending,” Justice Mossop said.

Despite the court’s stance on rewarding exposing war crimes with prison, journalists, media organisations, human rights lawyers, and citizens in Australia and around the world have condemned the court decision, stating the neglect of whistleblower protection and the accountability of those who were exposed for war crimes.

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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Mayowa Durosinmi is a Nigerian investigative reporter for West Africa Weekly with reports focusing on politics, human rights, security and health in West Africa and the Sahel region.

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