'Dark day': Australian whistleblower pleads guilty to exposing war crimes

ISTANBUL

Amid public criticism of the case, Australian whistleblower David McBride on Friday pleaded guilty to revealing information to journalists on war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

McBride faced five charges and pleaded guilty to three offenses, including stealing information and passing them on to journalists.

The former military lawyer leaked documents that formed the basis of the Afghan Files revelations on Australian special forces operations in Afghanistan, said Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, an Australia non-governmental organization.

McBride pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory "after losing pre-trial arguments over a public interest element to the charges he faced,” Pender said on X.

McBride is expected to be sentenced next year.

His alleged revelations of classified documents to reporters exposed war crimes committed by at least 25 Australian special forces personnel in Afghanistan, which involved the killing of 39 Afghans between 2005 and 2016.

Rex Patrick, former senator and founder of the Whistleblower Justice Fund, said: “This is a dark day for democracy in Australia. The attorney-general could have stopped this, but refused to, and now we have a whistleblower facing years in jail.”

Pender added: “This development must be a warning sign to the government that reform to federal whistleblowing law and the establishment of a whistleblower protection authority is urgent and long overdue. We cannot wait any longer.”

Rawan Arraf, executive director at the Australian Centre for International Justice, said: “Australia is now looking to jail the first person in relation to war crimes in Afghanistan, except it is not a war criminal but a person who helped expose them.”