The man who blew the whistle on alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan will face prosecution.
Lawyers for the former military lawyer David McBride withdrew an application to have him protected under whistleblower laws after the commonwealth moved to suppress expert evidence.
McBride is being prosecuted for allegedly leaking a cache of documents to the ABC that informed a series on alleged war crimes in Afghanistan and led to a much-publicised federal police raid on the ABC’s Sydney offices in 2019.
Two experts were set to support McBride’s case, but commonwealth lawyers sought to have their testimony quashed under public interest immunity laws. The laws suppress information that would prejudice the public interest if they were made public.
McBride said there was little prospect of success without their evidence.
“The government played the national security card to the absolute hilt,” he told media outside the ACT supreme court on Thursday.
His lawyer, Mark Davis, said it was common for sensitive material – such as what may have been included by the two experts – to come before the courts. The judge has the power to then close the court to the public and media.
“If I could show it to you, the material is not that controversial,” Davis said. “But [judging from the move to suppress the evidence] you would think it’s identities of agents or codes.”
McBride now faces a jury trial on five charges, including the unauthorised disclosure of information,...
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