David McBride
 Major David McBride         (whistleblower, soldier, lawyer) | ||||||||||||||
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| Born | 1963 | |||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, University of Sydney, Oriel College (Oxford) | |||||||||||||
| Exposed | Australia/Military | |||||||||||||
Australian Army lawyer who exposed war crimes in Afghanistan.
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David William McBride is an Australian whistleblower and former British Army major and Australian Army lawyer.
From 2014 to 2016 David McBride provided the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with information about war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. The material later formed the basis of the “Afghan Files”, a 2017 ABC expose revealing allegations of misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan, including possible unlawful killings of unarmed men and children.[1]
The disclosures also led to a much-publicised federal police raid on the ABC’s Sydney offices in 2019.
Charges
In 2018, David McBride was charged with several offences related to his whistleblowing, and is awaiting trial. McBride has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including the unauthorised disclosure of information, theft of commonwealth property and breaching the Defence Act. The war crime allegations were reviewed in the Brereton Report.
Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Kieran Pender urged the commonwealth to intervene and end the prosecution.
| His full, true, and unadulterated story |
- “This case should never have commenced; but it is not too late for the Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus KC, to end it,” he said.
- “Rather than prosecuting whistleblowers, the Australian government should get on with fixing whistleblowing law and ensuring accountability for Australia’s wrongdoing in Afghanistan.”[2]
50 years
On 29 April 2023, Russian MFA spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported:
- "We would like to talk once again about the ubiquitous 'freedom of speech,' Australian and Anglo-Saxon style.
- "The Australian authorities have sentenced military lawyer David McBride to 50 years in prison for exposing the crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan... Fifty years behind bars. For a lawyer who published a document. In Australia. In the present day."[3]
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
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| International Festival of Whistleblowing Dissent and Accountability | 8 May 2021 | 8 May 2021 | Internet | Whistleblowing event held in 2021. |
References
- ↑ "The Afghan Files – Defence leak exposes deadly secrets of Australia’s special forces"
- ↑ "Defence whistleblower David McBride to stand trial four years and eight months after being charged"
- ↑ "The Australian authorities have sentenced military lawyer David McBride to 50 years in prison for exposing the crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan"
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