Ben Roberts-Smith will continue to be held in custody after his attorneys chose not to request bail on Wednesday, following the recent war crime charges against Australia’s most decorated soldier.<\/p>\n
The ex-SAS soldier, who holds the Victoria Cross, was anticipated to make his initial court appearance on Wednesday after being charged with five counts of war crimes, including murder related to incidents that allegedly occurred in Afghanistan between April 2009 and October 2012.<\/p>\n
After spending Tuesday night at the Silverwater Correctional Centre in Sydney, following his arrest at the airport earlier that day, Roberts-Smith did not attend a scheduled virtual bail hearing in the New South Wales local court.<\/p>\n
His attorney, Jordan Portokalli, informed the court that they would not be pursuing a bail application on that day and requested that the case be scheduled for a hearing at the Downing Centre local court in Sydney at the earliest opportunity.<\/p>\n
Portokalli suggested to Judge Lucas Swan that it would be ideal if the matter could be addressed on Wednesday; however, he recognized this might be unrealistic.<\/p>\n
The judge concurred, noting he lacked access to the court’s schedule, and set the case for a brief mention at Downing Centre on June 4, eight weeks from now. Neither Portokalli nor the prosecution raised any objections to this timeline.<\/p>\n
Should Roberts-Smith’s legal representatives not secure an earlier hearing through the local court, he will remain in custody until the next scheduled date.<\/p>\n
Throughout this process, Roberts-Smith has consistently denied any allegations of misconduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ben Roberts-Smith will continue to be held in custody after his attorneys chose not to request bail on Wednesday, following the recent war crime charges against Australia’s most decorated soldier. The ex-SAS soldier, who holds the Victoria Cross, was anticipated to make his initial court appearance on Wednesday after being charged with five counts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[263,913,895,1173,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-australia-news","category-uk-australian-law","category-uk-ben-roberts-smith","category-uk-new-south-wales","category-uk"],"yoast_head":"\n