VANCOUVER, CANADA –Australian courts have convicted David McBride, the former army lawyer, with ‘stealing’ and ‘leaking’ classified information. Mr. McBride has been sentenced to a maximum of five years and eight months in prison for releasing documents about Australia’s war in Afghanistan.
David Mossop, a judge of the Australian Supreme Court for the capital region, issued the verdict on Tuesday, May 14.
In November 2023, McBride was charged with three crimes of removing, transporting, and retaining classified documents, disclosing those documents to three journalists, and publishing them on his blog in 2016.
McBride collected mostly classified military information over an 18-month period in 2014 and 2015 and provided it to journalists.
After the court decision was announced, Mark Davis, McBride’s lawyer, immediately announced after the verdict that McBride believed the release of the information was in the public interest and his duty, and therefore, he would apply for an appeal.
The judge had previously said that despite his “good character”, McBride had become “obsessive” about the correctness of his opinions.
McBride’s whistleblowing led to investigations into war crimes committed by Australian defense personnel during the country’s long military involvement as part of a US-led military coalition in Afghanistan
Investigations found that Australian soldiers had engaged in extra-judicial killing and execution of civilians in the southern provinces where they were based. At least 39 Afghan civilians had been unlawfully killed by Australian military personnel.
Separate investigations by Australia’s SBS News revealed on November 21, 2023, that the families of two men killed by Australian soldiers in Uruzgan province were demanding justice after it was revealed that the soldiers drank alcohol from one of the victims’ prosthetic legs.
According to SBS, the victims were father and son Mohammad Issa and Ahmadullah, who were killed in 2009 during a raid by Australian soldiers on a compound known as “Whiskey 108” in Uruzgan province.
The perpetrator was no other than Ben Roberts-Smith, a soldier who has received the Victoria Cross medal. Although Roberts-Smith consistently denied all criminal allegations, on June 5, 2023, Anthony Besanko, a civil court judge in Australia, found Roberts-Smith “complicit and responsible” for the murder of three Afghan civilians.
After Australia’s investigation of its military conduct in Afghanistan, the UK also opened similar probes, finding allegations of violating the laws of war by British forces.
Many governments protect access to their military documents by espionage acts away from public eyes and whistleblowers. The United States has been trying for years to bring Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, who Washington accuses of publishing classified information. Such legal protections often surmount those ensuring access to information and accountability mechanisms.
The Australian judge who convicted McBride argued that disclosing such documents could damage Australia’s position with “foreign partners,” leading them to share less information with Australia.
Karen Penner, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Center, said it was a “dark day” for Australian democracy. He added, “The imprisonment of a whistleblower will have a grave chilling effect on potential truth-tellers. Our democracy suffers when people can’t speak up about potential wrongdoing.”
