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A person hailed as a hero is facing a trial for the murder of 5 unarmed civilians throughout the war in Afghanistan.
Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, a former Australian Defence Force member, was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with five counts of war crimes.
He was deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, and faces five counts of murder and war crimes for the killing of 5 people.
Roberts-Smith served six tours in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2012, before being lauded with several top military honours.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett said: ‘It is going to be alleged the victims weren’t collaborating in hostilities on the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan.’
She added that the victims were initially detained, while unarmed, and were under the charge of Australian soldiers after they were murdered.
Roberts-Smith has denied the entire allegations, which first surfaced after an investigation in 2018.
In 2023, he quit his job after a civil court blamed him for unlawfully killing 4 people while he served in Afghanistan.
Now, the Australian Federal Police investigation into Roberts-Smith, which began in 2021, has led to his arrest.
Ross Barnett, director of investigations on the Office of the Special Investigator, which is assisting within the case, said the method has been complex.
‘We don’t have access to the crime scenes, we don’t have photographs, site plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood spatter evaluation, all of those things we might normally get at against the law scene,’ he said.
Roberts-Smith is facing mounting calls to be stripped of his quite a few awards during service, including the distinguished Victoria Cross.
He’s set to look before a court for a bail hearing on Wednesday in Recent South Wales.
What’s Roberts-Smith accused of?
Roberts-Smith is facing charges of war crimes and murder in Afghanistan while serving as an Australian soldier.
Anthony Besanko, a federal judge within the court of Australia, previously found on the balance of probabilities that he had taken part in at the least 4 murders.
The court on the time heard that Roberts-Smith had ordered unarmed men in Afghanistan to be shot dead to ‘blood’ rookie soldiers on two occasions.
He was also found to have been involved within the deaths of a handcuffed farmer, whom he kicked off a cliff.
In one other instance, he captured a Taliban fighter and used his prosthetic leg as a trophy and ‘drinking vessel’.
Roberts-Smith has denied any wrongdoing.
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