Allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan have led to charges against Australia’s most decorated living soldier. Ben Roberts-Smith, who departed the military in 2013, was taken into custody at the Sydney airport on Tuesday and is scheduled to appear in court on five counts of the war crime of murder. Before his bail hearing on Wednesday, he will spend the night in a jail.
The former corporal in Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) was found to have killed multiple unarmed Afghans in a 2023 defamation ruling. The 47-year-old Victoria Cross recipient has previously described the accusations against him, which have not yet been evaluated at a criminal standard, as “egregious” and “spiteful” and has denied any misconduct.
For the first time in history, a court looked into allegations of war crimes committed by Australian forces during the civil trial. Roberts-Smith lost an appeal against the Federal Court’s decision last year, arguing that the claimed killings either did not occur at all or happened lawfully during combat.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced during a press conference in Sydney on Tuesday that a 47-year-old ex-soldier had been taken into custody and would face charges of killing unarmed detainees while serving in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012. He is charged with three counts of helping, abetting, counseling, or procuring a murder, one of the war crime of murder, and one of jointly commissioning a murder.
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