Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated surviving soldier, lost his appeal against a historic defamation ruling that found him guilty of war crimes. In 2023, a judge decided that press reports claiming the Victoria Cross recipient had killed four unarmed Afghans were accurate. However, Mr. Roberts-Smith contended that the judge had committed legal mistakes.
For the first time in history, a court evaluated Australian military charges of war crimes in a civil trial. Although Mr. Roberts-Smith has stated that he would appeal the verdict to the High Court of Australia “immediately,” a panel of three Federal Court judges unanimously affirmed the original judgment on Friday.
In a statement, he stated, “I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations.” Since leaving the defence force in 2013, Mr. Roberts-Smith has not been prosecuted with any allegations in a criminal court, where the standard of evidence is greater.
While serving in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012 as a member of a military coalition led by the United States, the former special forces corporal filed a lawsuit against three Australian publications over a series of stories that claimed he had engaged in significant misbehaviour.
Upon receiving Australia’s highest military accolade for defeating Taliban terrorists who attacked his Special Air Service (SAS) squad on his alone, Mr. Roberts-Smith was hailed as a national hero at the time the stories were published in 2018.
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