Ben Roberts-Smith's uniforms are displayed in a glass case at the Australian War Memorial, a monument in Canberra dedicated to the wars in which the Australian Army has been involved and to the most prominent members of the armed forces. Robert-Smith was one of them: there is no soldier alive in the Pacific country with more decorations than this former corporal in the SAS, a special forces unit. In addition to having the highest military distinction, the honors extend beyond the battlefield: in 2013 he was named "Father of the Year."
But his reputation fell apart when veteran Australian reporters revealed that Robert-Smith, 44, was more of a war criminal than a war hero: he was accused of murdering at least six civilians while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
He pushed a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff, then ordered him riddled with bullets. He also shot dead an unarmed disabled man, ordered prisoner executions, assaulted and intimidated subordinates, and even beat up a woman with whom he was having an affair.
All these were the accusations launched in 2018 from three of the most important Australian newspapers (The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Canberra Times). Roberts-Smith denied it all and sued the media for defamation. After a long judicial case that has lasted five years, a federal court judge has confirmed all the published complaints against the military.
"Ben Roberts-Smith murdered unarmed civilians while serving in the army in Afghanistan," was the conclusion reached by Judge Anthony Besanko on Thursday. It was a civilian trial -it has not been tried by a military court, which is the one that can punish these cases with prison sentences-, but the soldier is expected to bear the costs of the trial to the newspapers, which would amount to more than of 35 million dollars.
The same defendant media have said that Roberts-Smith, absent during the trial held in Sydney, is currently on vacation in Bali, they have even published photos of him enjoying the beach relaxing in a lounger.
Three years ago, a national scandal erupted after the Australian government admitted that its military had committed war crimes, killing 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners between 2005 and 2016. An image of an Australian soldier holding a fist was even posted on social media. a bloody knife against the neck of a barefoot boy clinging to a white sheep.
The most serious accusation against Roberts-Smith proven in court was the one that occurred during a mission in the village of Darwan, in southern Afghanistan, in 2012: the soldier led a handcuffed man named Ali Jan to the edge of a cliff 10 meters. Roberts-Smith kicked into Ali Jan's chest, sending him falling backwards off the cliff. Ali Jan survived the fall and was trying to get to his feet when Roberts-Smith ordered a soldier under his command to shoot him dead, which he did.
Another high-profile episode during the trial was in 2009, in a raid on a bombed-out compound codenamed Whiskey 108. The SAS came across two men hiding in a tunnel, one elderly and one younger with a prosthetic leg. The men left the tunnel unarmed and surrendered. Roberts-Smith ordered a young soldier from his patrol to shoot the old man. Then he himself picked up the disabled man, threw him to the ground and shot him with his machine gun. Another soldier picked up the prosthetic leg, which was used by Australian SAS troops as a beer drinking glass at a bar on their Afghan base.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
