Human rights and press freedom supporters took issue with the Supreme Court’s five-year, eight-month sentence for former military lawyer David McBride.
The “first whistleblower” in Australia was found guilty of war crimes by the country’s highest court, prompting outrage from press freedom and human rights advocates.
David McBride, a former military attorney, was sentenced to five years and eight months in jail by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, with no chance of release for over two years and three months.
After a trial judge dismissed McBride’s argument that his conduct had a public interest component, he entered a guilty plea in November of last year.
McBride entered a guilty plea to three of the five allegations against him, including information theft and dissemination to media outlets.
The Afghan Files revelations on Australian special forces operations in Afghanistan were made possible by documents leaked by a former military lawyer.
39 Afghans were killed between 2005 and 2016 as a result of war crimes carried out by at least 25 Australian special forces members in Afghanistan, according to his purported disclosure of secret documents to journalists.
“Not a combatant”
The Australian Centre for International Justice’s executive director, Rawan Arraf, called it a “travesty” that a whistleblower, rather than a war criminal, was the first to be imprisoned in connection with Australia’s war crimes in Afghanistan.
McBride “enabled important public interest journalism,” according to Arraf, by disclosing the war crimes materials.
According to the Australia-based Human Rights Law Centre, McBride is the “first whistleblower to be imprisoned in recent memory in Australia.”
His disclosures “showed credible evidence of war crimes committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan,” said the statement.
The Human Rights Law Center’s acting legal director, Kieran Pender, declared: “This is a dark day for Australian democracy.” Potential truth-tellers will be severely deterred by the incarceration of a whistleblower.
When people are afraid to speak out about possible misconduct, our democracy suffers. Pender stated that there is no public interest in pursuing whistleblowers.
“Press freedom depends on protections for journalists and their sources,” stated Peter Greste, executive director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.
He stated, “Cases like these undermine the freedom of the press in our country. Australia dropped to 39th on the global press freedom index recently.”
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
