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ISLAMABAD —Civil society groups are calling on Australia to halt the prosecution of a man who leaked classified documents detailing allegations of Australian special forces committing war crimes in Afghanistan.
The call came just hours before the trial of David McBride, a former military lawyer, is to commence at the Supreme Court in Canberra on Monday -- and is expected to last three weeks. He is facing charges of theft of government property, breach of defense law, and disclosure of classified information, with a potential life sentence if convicted.
McBride has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Human Rights Law Center or HRLC, an alliance of Australian civil society groups and unions said in a statement that the prosecution of the war crimes whistleblowers would deter whistleblowers.
"There is no public interest in prosecuting whistleblowers. Today is a dark day for Australian democracy. The truth is on trial," Kieran Pender, senior HRLC lawyer, said in the statement.
McBride was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and 2013 as a Defense Force lawyer. He began leaking classified documents to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 2014 and 2016 about alleged war crimes by Australian special forces, according to the national broadcaster.
A subsequent independent investigation into the revelations accused Australian special forces of unlawfully killing at least 39 Afghan civilians.
The HRLC statement quoted former Australian senator and founder of the Whistleblower Justice Fund, Rex Patrick, as saying that the government had the power to stop the trial.
"We may now see one brave whistleblower behind bars and thousands of prospective whistleblowers lost from the community," Patrick said. "There was no public interest in this prosecution and that things have come to this is a blight on this government's pre-election commitment to foster and protect whistleblowers," he added.
The Canberra Times newspaper quoted a spokesperson for the attorney-general Sunday as saying that the power to discontinue proceedings was "reserved for very unusual and exceptional circumstances."
The spokesperson emphasized that the "proceedings remain ongoing, it is inappropriate to comment further on the particulars of their matters."
Kobra Moradi, a legal analyst at Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, said McBride's "whistleblowing helped shine a light on the reprehensible conduct" of Australian forces in Afghanistan.
"He should be commended for exposing war crimes - not prosecuted for doing so," Moradi said, according to the HRLC statement.
The coalition noted in an explainer published on its website that McBride "will be the first person to face trial in relation to Australia's war crimes in Afghanistan - the whistleblower, not an alleged war criminal."
Speaking to a rally held for him in a Canberra park Sunday, McBride said his "government cares more about secrecy than crimes." He tweeted video of his speech in which he said of the documents he released that "it is not about classified information, it is about crime."
Australia withdrew all of its troops from Afghanistan two months prior to the complete military exit of the United States and NATO allies in August 2021, which ended almost 20 years of Western involvement in the Afghan war. Official data showed at least 41 Australian soldiers were killed, and many others suffered injuries in the conflict.