Australia Charges Decorated Veteran Ben Roberts-Smith With War Crimes

Roberts-Smith, a 47-year-old former Special Air Service Regiment corporal awarded the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry, was arrested at Sydney Airport after arriving from Brisbane, as stated by Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett. He will remain in custody overnight and make his first court appearance on Wednesday.

This marks only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign charged with a war crime; former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz, 44, pleaded not guilty to a similar charge. War crime murder, a federal crime in Australia, carries a potential life sentence.

Barrett stated the alleged victims were detained, unarmed, and under Australian Defense Force control when killed, either by Roberts-Smith or by subordinates acting on his orders. A civil court previously found similar allegations credible in a defamation suit Roberts-Smith brought, ruling in 2023 that he unlawfully killed four noncombatants.

The charges follow a 2020 military report finding evidence that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan noncombatants. Barrett emphasized that the alleged conduct is confined to a very small section of the Australian Defense Force.

The Office of the Special Investigator, working with police, has investigated 53 war crime allegations, concluding 39 without charges.