Ben Roberts-Smith is ARRESTED over alleged war crimes

Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been arrested and will be charged with five alleged war crimes.

The Victoria Cross recipient was detained at Sydney Airport after flying in from Brisbane on Tuesday morning.

In the footage, Roberts-Smith can be seen accompanied on the tarmac by Australian Federal Police officers who were waiting at the arrivals gate as the plane landed.

AFP said Roberts-Smith, 47, is expected to be charged with the following offenses under section 268.70(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth):

• The war crime of murder for the intentional death of a person in Kakarak, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, on or about 12 April 2009;

• The war crime of murder for aiding, abetting, counseling or procuring another person to cause the intentional death of a person in Kakarak, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, on or about 12 April 2009;

• The war crime of murder for aiding, abetting, counseling or procuring another person to cause the intentional death of a person in Darwan, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, on or about 11 September 2012;

• war crime of murder with another person for intentionally causing the death of a person in Syahchow, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, on or about 20 October 2012; And,

• Murder is a war crime for aiding, abetting, counseling or procuring another person to intentionally cause the death of a person in Syahchow, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, on or about 20 October 2012.

The maximum penalty for murder, which is a war crime, is life imprisonment.

Footage of Roberts-Smith being escorted onto the tarmac by AFP officers

He is expected to appear in a NSW court later today.

AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett confirms 47-year-old man has been charged with five counts of war crimes – murder during a press conference outside AFP Sydney Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon.

However, the Commissioner refused to refer to Roberts-Smith by name, in line with AFP’s usual practice.

“It will be alleged that the victims were detained, unarmed and under the control of members of the ADF when they were killed,” Commissioner Barrett said.

‘It will be alleged that the man was a member of the ADF when he was involved in the deaths of Afghan nationals between 2009 and 2012, in circumstances that constitute war crimes under Commonwealth criminal law.’

Commissioner Barrett added: ‘It will be alleged that the victims were shot by the defendant or by subordinate members of the ADF acting in the defendant’s presence and under his orders.’

Roberts-Smith sued Nine newspaper and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters over their reporting in 2018, claiming she was defamatory. war crimes.

Officers were waiting at the arrival gate when the plane landed.

But in 2023, Judge Anthony Besanko found that Roberts-Smith’s allegations that he was responsible for the killings of four unarmed male civilians while deployed to Afghanistan were largely true.

of the age McKenzie and Masters were the first to report details of Roberts-Smith’s arrest Tuesday morning.

Roberts-Smith had appealed her 2023 Federal Court loss by challenging Judge Besanko’s findings, arguing that they were not supported by sufficient evidence for such serious allegations.

Last year, Australia’s highest court rejected the former soldier’s application to challenge the Federal Court findings.

On the same day, the recipient of Australia’s two highest military decorations – the Victoria Cross and the Medal of Bravery – was ordered to pay Nine’s legal costs as a lump sum following an unsuccessful Federal Court appeal.

The cost of the 110-day trial and 10-day appeal is estimated to exceed $30 million.

Roberts-Smith’s Supreme Court bid had argued that the Full Court of the Federal Court had erred in assuming it had accepted certain claims that were not re-challenged on appeal.

Articles published in 2018 included allegations that Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff and ordered his execution, and that he shot another prisoner with a machine gun and took his prosthetic leg home as a souvenir drinking container.

Roberts-Smith maintained her innocence.

More to come.