National security delays Ben Roberts-Smith prosecution
Ex-SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith will not know full war crimes allegations against him for months due to classified information involved in the case.
The 47-year-old man was arrested in April and accused of killing or ordering the killing of five unarmed detainees while he was serving in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
But the case against him was plagued by delays stretching into September due to national security issues, Sydney Downing Center Local Court said on Tuesday.
Crown prosecutor Chelsea Brain said Roberts-Smith could not be given the full evidence against him until specific orders were made by the court protecting sensitive information.
The application for this top-secret material was filed by the federal government.
Roberts-Smith’s lawyer, Karen Espiner, told the court her client, crown prosecutors and the government would likely agree on how the secret documents should be handled.
Judge Susan Horan will need to be convinced that the orders are necessary during a hearing in September.
Under the National Security Information Act, a judge may issue orders regarding the disclosure, preservation, preservation, processing and destruction of classified materials during a criminal case.
Roberts-Smith did not contest any of the charges but said she would use an upcoming trial to clear her name.
He was released on bail in April after his father, Len Roberts-Smith, a former Western Australian Supreme Court judge, posted bail of $250,000.
Australia’s most decorated living soldier is accused of opening fire with a machine gun on Afghan prisoner Mohammed Essa during a raid on a compound called Whiskey 108 in April 2009 and ordering the execution of his son Ahmedullah to “shed the rookie’s blood”.
Ahmedullah had a prosthetic leg.
The then-SAS soldier placed firearms on the bodies to claim they were enemy combatants, according to court documents seen by AAP.
In the village of Darwan in August 2012, Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking a handcuffed Ali Jan off a 10-metre cliff and then dragging him across a stream bed and ordering him to be shot.
Two months later in Syahchow, he allegedly lined up two prisoners in a cornfield and shot one of them with another soldier.
To cover up his claim, he threw a grenade into the bodies after ordering a subordinate to shoot another, according to court documents.
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