A military lawyer charged with leaking defence documents at the centre of AFP raids on the ABC will appear in court on Thursday. David McBride, 55, is accused of leaking documents that outlined incidents of Australian special forces shooting unarmed civilians in Afghanistan, leading to the 2017 ABC story ‘The Afghan Files’. Mr McBride is charged with theft and three counts of breaching the Defence Act, and, if found guilty, faces an unlimited fine, or unlimited jail time. He has previously admitted to providing the documents to the ABC but has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Mr McBride told Sky News on Thursday ‘it took the events of last week to realise what we’ve got here; this is our last chance for us to stand up before they build concentration camps because, under the current laws, they could’. The accused will appear in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday for a directions hearing. Image: News Corp Australia
