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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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