Australia’s most decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested and is due to be charged with five alleged war crimes.
The Victoria Cross recipient was taken into custody at Sydney Airport after arriving on a flight from Brisbane on Tuesday morning.
Footage captured Roberts-Smith being escorted by Australian Federal Police officers on the tarmac who were waiting at the arrivals gate as the plane touched down.
The AFP said Roberts-Smith, 47, is expected to be charged with the following offences under section 268.70(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth):
- The war crime of murder, in that he intentionally caused the death of a person, on or about 12 April, 2009, at Kakarak, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan;
- The war crime of murder, in that he aided, abetted, counselled or procured another person to intentionally cause the death of a person, on or about 12 April, 2009, at Kakarak, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan;
- The war crime of murder, in that he aided, abetted, counselled or procured another person to intentionally cause the death of a person, on or about 11 September, 2012, at Darwan, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan;
- The war crime of murder, with another person, in that they intentionally caused the death of a person, on or about 20 October, 2012, in Syahchow, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan; and,
- The war crime of murder, in that he aided, abetted, counselled or procured another person to intentionally cause the death of a person, on or about 20 October, 2012, at Syahchow, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
The maximum penalty for the offence of war crime – murder is life imprisonment.
Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested over multiple alleged war crimes
Footage captured Roberts-Smith being escorted by AFP officers on the tarmac
He is expected to appear before a NSW court later today.
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett confirmed a 47-year-old had been charged with five counts of war crime – murder during a press conference outside the AFP Sydney Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon.
‘It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed, and were under the control of the ADF members when they were murdered,’ Commissioner Barrett said.
Roberts-Smith sued Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters for defamation over their reports in 2018, which claimed he had committed war crimes.
But in 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko found the claims that Roberts-Smith was responsible for the murder of four unarmed male civilians when deployed in Afghanistan were substantially true.
The Age’s McKenzie and Masters were first to report details of Roberts-Smith’s arrest on Tuesday morning.
Roberts-Smith had appealed his 2023 Federal Court loss, disputing Justice Besanko’s findings, arguing that was not backed up by sufficient evidence for such serious claims.
Last year, Australia’s highest court refused the former soldier’s application to appeal the Federal Court findings.
The officers were waiting at the arrivals gate as the plane touched down
It came on the same day the recipient of Australia’s highest two military honours – the Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry – was ordered to pay a lump sum of Nine’s legal costs for the unsuccessful Federal Court appeal.
The costs of the 110-day trial and the 10-day appeal are estimated to exceed $30million.
Roberts-Smith’s High Court bid had claimed the Full Court of the Federal Court made an error in assuming he had accepted some allegations which were not re-contested during the appeal.
The articles, published in 2018, included claims Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff and ordered his execution, and machine-gunned another prisoner, taking his prosthetic leg home as a souvenir drinking vessel.
Roberts-Smith has maintained his innocence.
More to come.
