David McBride, sentenced to five years and eight months for leaking classified information regarding alleged war crimes, has lost an appeal against his sentence and will remain incarcerated. The 61-year-old, who pleaded guilty to obtaining and sharing sensitive defence documents, has a non-parole period of two years and three months, meaning he will be in prison until at least August 2026.
Justice Belinda Baker delivered the verdict in the ACT Court of Appeal, concluding the hearing in under a minute. The specific reasons for her decision will be made available later. McBride’s legal team has indicated plans to appeal to the High Court if the ruling was unfavourable.
McBride shared a total of 235 documents, 207 of which were deemed secret, with journalists. This disclosure contributed to reports highlighting allegations that Australian special forces were involved in war crimes during operations in Afghanistan. A subsequent inquiry uncovered credible evidence of 23 incidents of potential war crimes, including the deaths of 39 Afghan individuals between 2005 and 2016.
During the sentencing, Justice David Mossop noted that the length of McBride’s sentence accounted for mitigating factors such as his early guilty plea and mental health concerns, along with the necessity to discourage future leaks of classified information. McBride’s attorney, Eddie Lloyd, contended that the sentence was excessively harsh and did not adequately consider the implications of McBride’s guilty plea.
Human rights campaigners have urged the Commonwealth to retract the prosecution and release McBride, arguing that his imprisonment may discourage potential whistleblowers from coming forward in the future.