Until a few years ago, Ben Roberts-Smith was one of Australia’s most celebrated war heroes. Now he will stand trial for alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
A yearslong investigation led to Roberts-Smith’s arrest at Sydney airport. The 47-year-old former special forces soldier is charged with five counts of murder as a war crime over his alleged role in the killing of Afghan civilians in Uruzgan Province between 2009 and 2012. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said, “The victims were detained, unarmed and were under the control of ADF members when they were killed.” The ADF is the Australian Defence Force.
Roberts-Smith remains in custody after his legal team declined to request bail. The investigation into alleged misconduct by Australian troops in Afghanistan has already seen another soldier charged, following a military inquiry that found credible information that elite forces were involved in the allegedly unlawful killing of 39 Afghan prisoners, including farmers and civilians.
Investigators face challenges because the alleged crimes occurred years ago and authorities lack access to crime scenes. “We don’t have access to the crime scenes. We don’t have photographs, site plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood spatter analysis, all of those things we would normally get at a crime scene,” said Ross Barnett, a special investigator working with federal police.
The first allegations against Roberts-Smith surfaced in media reports in 2018 after some of his former comrades spoke to journalists. Roberts-Smith fought back, bringing a defamation case against the media company that first reported the accusations. That civil trial heard testimony from a number of former defence force servicemen who had served with him and concluded that Roberts-Smith had likely committed war crimes.
Roberts-Smith maintains his innocence. The upcoming criminal trial will test the new charges to the higher standard required in criminal proceedings. Gideon Boas, a senior legal adviser who worked on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said insider evidence is essential in war crimes prosecutions and noted the significance of pursuing a high-profile figure long regarded as a national hero: “He’s been touted as a war hero for many years, and he’s somebody who embodies, really, the image of the Australian soldier.”
If convicted, Roberts-Smith could face life imprisonment.
For NPR News, Kristina Kukolja reported from Melbourne.
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