Australian Special Soldier Ben Roberts-Smith Found Guilty of War Crimes in Afghanistan

Ben Roberts-Smith, who has been awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery that can be awarded to an Australian soldier, sued three Australian newspapers accusing him of committing a war crime by killing civilians in Afghanistan.

On Monday, a federal court rejected the lawsuit and, in a 736-page ruling, stated that the three newspapers had not written anything incorrect about the 44-year-old and the events in Afghanistan.

Baptism of fire

According to Judge Anthony Besanko, there is no doubt that Roberts-Smith was “involved in and responsible for” the murder of three Afghan men.

– I have found that the plaintiff was involved in and responsible for the murder of EKIA56 in 2009, the murder of Ali Jan in Darwan on 11 September 2012 and the murder of an Afghan man in Chinartu on 12 October 2012, says Besanko’s ruling.

According to the warrant, Roberts-Smith ordered a subordinate soldier to shoot and kill the elderly man identified in court papers as EKIA56. The murder was supposed to be the soldier’s “baptism of fire”.

Roberts-Smith also ordered the killing of an Afghan prisoner of war in Darwan, the ruling states.

The shelf

The judge also gives a crushing characterization of the decorated special soldier and states that he is “not an honest and reliable witness”.

Roberts-Smith has previously been described as an Australian war hero and praised for his efforts while serving in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2012. He has not commented on the ruling.

An Australian report concluded in 2020 that there is credible evidence that members of the Australian special forces SAS killed dozens of unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan. Only one soldier has been put on trial in connection with this.