David McBride, a former military lawyer, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for revealing secret Australian military data. Photo by Mick Tsikas/EPA-EFE
Former Australian military attorney David McBride, who accused Aussie soldiers of possible war crimes in Afghanistan, was sentenced to almost six years in prison on Tuesday for sharing secret military documents with journalists.
Supreme Court Judge David Mossop said McBride’s high-security clearance gave him access to all the material and dismissed the argument that McBride did not believe he was breaking the law and acted out of a sense of personal duty. He did, though, accept that McBride’s PTSD and mental health may have played a minor role in his actions. Advertisement
The judge said while McBride appeared to be of “good character,” he became “obsessed with the correctness of his own opinions.”
He said that willfully sharing of secret documents against the law showed a “gross breach of trust” and that McBride has shown “no contrition” for it, according to the BBC News.
McBride’s attorneys said they will appeal the sentence. He pleaded guilty to stealing and sharing military classified information just before the start of his trial last year after his lawyers failed to win several pre-trial motions. McBride will be eligible for parole in 27 months. Advertisement
McBride had remained defiant before his sentencing on Tuesday.
“I did not break my oath to the people of Australia and the soldiers that keep us safe,” McBride told reporters before his sentencing.
The data McBride stole became the foundation for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s series “The Afghan Files,” which suggested that Aussie soldiers were involved in 39 illegal deaths during the Afghanistan War.
McBride’s case also sparked the debate on what some called Australia’s weak whistleblower laws that critics said offered little protection for the former military lawyer or anyone else interested in coming forward to reveal wrongdoing.
