Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, has been apprehended at Sydney Airport in connection with alleged war crimes. The former soldier, who is a recipient of the Victoria Cross, was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. He has faced accusations in a defamation lawsuit of killing unarmed civilians during his service with the Australian Special Air Service (SAS) in Afghanistan.
Once celebrated as Australia’s most distinguished veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, Roberts-Smith sought legal action against three newspapers over claims that he had committed war crimes, including the murder of unarmed civilians and intimidation of fellow soldiers. In a protracted and costly defamation trial, he was unsuccessful, with a judge determining, based on the civil standard of “balance of probabilities,” that he had committed four murders while in military service.
Roberts-Smith subsequently appealed to the full bench of the federal court but was unsuccessful, and the high court declined to hear a further appeal. Throughout this process, he has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
The Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Special Investigator were scheduled to provide details regarding the arrest of the 47-year-old Roberts-Smith in Sydney after midday on Tuesday. A statement indicated that he is expected to face charges of “five counts of war crime – murder.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refrained from making any comments, citing the ongoing legal proceedings. “I have no intention of prejudicing a matter that clearly is a legal matter, and that’s before the courts, and any comment would do so,” he stated to reporters in Canberra.
Roberts-Smith, a former corporal in the SAS, received the Victoria Cross for his “most conspicuous gallantry” during the 2010 battle of Tizak. He was recognized as father of the year and served as the chair of the government’s Australia Day Council.
However, in 2018, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Canberra Times published a series of reports that accused him of war crimes, including the murder of civilians and ordering soldiers under his command to execute civilians during “blooding” incidents. In his lawsuit against the newspapers, Roberts-Smith claimed their articles depicted him as a criminal who violated both moral and legal standards of military conduct, tarnishing his reputation and that of the Australian army.
The newspapers defended their reporting, asserting that their allegations regarding Roberts-Smith’s complicity in murder were accurate. One notable allegation proven in court involved an incident in the southern Afghan village of Darwan in 2012, where Roberts-Smith reportedly marched a handcuffed man named Ali Jan to the edge of a ten-meter cliff and kicked him, causing him to fall. The court found that Ali Jan survived the fall but sustained severe injuries and was trying to stand when Australian soldiers approached him. Roberts-Smith allegedly ordered one of his soldiers to shoot Ali Jan, an order that was carried out, leading to the man’s death.
Another significant allegation arose from a raid on a bombed compound known as Whiskey 108 in 2009. During the operation, two unarmed men were discovered hiding in a tunnel. Justice Anthony Besanko concluded that Roberts-Smith instructed a junior soldier to execute an elderly man and subsequently forced a disabled man outside, where he shot him with a machine gun. The leg of the disabled man was reportedly kept as a trophy by another soldier and used inappropriately as a drinking vessel at the SAS base bar.
