A former Australian military lawyer has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for sharing classified documents with journalists that revealed potential war crimes committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan.
David McBride had already pleaded guilty to three charges in connection with the case, including theft.
In a decision handed down Tuesday in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory in Sydney, the judge sentenced the 60-year-old McBride to five years and eight months in prison. He ordered McBride to serve two years and three months of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
The judge rejected McBride’s assertion that he did not believe he was breaking the law by sharing more than 200 documents with three reporters with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The documents were the basis of an Australian Broadcasting Corp. news series that revealed allegations that Australian special forces killed 39 unarmed Afghan men and children between 2009 and 2013. The series led to an investigation by the Australian military, which recommended that 19 current and former soldiers face criminal prosecution.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters.
