The top line: Crossbenchers including Allegra Spender and Senator David Pocock, the Greens, and Liberal MP Bridget Archer have signed a letter addressed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus demanding they pardon whistleblower David McBride.
The bigger picture: McBride, a former military lawyer, took 235 documents, 207 classified as secret, by printing them at different Defence facilities and taking them out in his backpack. An inquiry later found credible information about 23 incidents of potential war crimes, which involved the killing of 39 Afghans between 2005 and 2016.
The key quote: “David McBride is the only person to go to jail for Australian wrongdoing in Afghanistan. Yet he is not the one who committed the war crimes,” Spender said.
What else to know: The letter also calls for the prosecution against Australian Tax Office whistleblower Richard Boyle, to be dropped, the establishment of a whistleblower protection commission and serious reform for whistleblowing and secrecy laws.
What happens next: McBride was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison. He will be ineligible for parole for two years and three months. His legal team has indicated they’ll launch an appeal.
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