SYDNEY: Australia’s most adorned residing soldier was arrested on Tuesday (Apr 7) and will likely be charged with 5 counts of battle crime murders referring to the killing of unarmed civilians whereas on deployment in Afghanistan.
The person, whom police recognized as a 47-year-old former Australian Defence Power (ADF) member and media named as Ben Roberts-Smith, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning.
He will likely be charged with 5 counts of battle crimes in connection to the homicide of 5 folks in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, Australian Federal Police (AFP) stated. The utmost penalty for every cost is life imprisonment.
Roberts-Smith was hailed as a nationwide hero after being awarded a number of prime army honours, together with the Victoria Cross, for his actions throughout six excursions of Afghanistan from 2006 to 2012.
“Will probably be alleged the victims weren’t participating in hostilities on the time of their alleged homicide in Afghanistan,” AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett advised a press convention.
“Will probably be alleged the victims have been detained, unarmed and have been below the management of ADF members once they have been killed.”
Police would additionally allege the victims have been shot by the accused or shot by subordinates performing on his orders and in his presence, she stated.
Roberts-Smith has constantly denied allegations of wrongdoing throughout his service, a few of which have been first reported by 9 Leisure newspapers in a sequence of articles beginning in 2018.
Among the many accusations reported have been that Roberts-Smith had shot useless an unarmed Afghan teenager and kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff earlier than ordering him to be shot useless.
Roberts-Smith unsuccessfully challenged the stories in what grew to become Australia’s most costly defamation trial, with a Federal Court docket decide ruling in 2023 the newspapers proved 4 of the six homicide accusations they levelled.
A closing attraction bid was dismissed by the Excessive Court docket in September 2025.
A 2020 report discovered credible proof that members of Australia’s Particular Air Service Regiment (SAS) killed dozens of unarmed prisoners within the prolonged Afghan battle.
An investigation into the SAS soldier by the AFP and the Workplace of the Particular Investigator (OSI), set as much as study allegations of battle crimes by Australian defence forces in Afghanistan, was opened in 2021.
Ross Barnett, director of investigations on the OSI, stated the method was advanced and time-consuming as a result of authorities have been unable to go to Afghanistan and entry the crime scenes.
“We do not have entry to the crime scenes, we do not have images, website plans, measurements, the restoration of projectiles, blood spatter evaluation, all of these issues we’d usually get at a criminal offense scene,” he stated on the press convention.
The joint OSI-AFP commenced 53 investigations involving allegations of battle crimes by ADF members in Afghanistan, with 10 ongoing. One other former particular forces soldier is because of face trial for battle crime homicide subsequent February, the OSI stated.
“If the proof results in different folks needing to be charged, you may be assured that can occur,” Barnett added.
Police stated the accused man would seem earlier than an area courtroom within the state of New South Wales afterward Tuesday.
Roberts-Smith’s lawyer for his defamation trial didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
