Hero’s new war crimes probe
The Australian Federal Police has launched a second war crimes investigation into Australia’s most decorated living soldier, former special services corporal Ben Roberts-Smith.
The new police investigation is looking into allegations Roberts-Smith is implicated in the summary execution of a man at a compound in southern Afghanistan in April 2009. Two separate teams of federal police detectives are now investigating Roberts-Smith over his alleged involvement in the murders of unarmed men including one detainee.
It makes the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry recipient the subject of more serious war crimes inquiries than any special forces veteran in the Commonwealth.
Roberts-Smith is one of the most decorated veterans to have served with coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Multiple official sources who cannot be identified have confirmed that both federal police taskforces have separately obtained sworn eyewitness statements from SAS soldiers or support staff who allege they directly witnessed Roberts-Smith commit war crimes.
Roberts-Smith has strongly denied all allegations of wrongdoing and described reporting of the investigations into his alleged misconduct as ‘‘malicious’’.
The new inquiry is looking into the alleged execution of an Afghan man who was confronted by the SAS during an operation in the village of Kakarak in southern Afghanistan on Easter Sunday 2009.
The man was in a compound the SAS named Whiskey 108. The compound was the subject of an assault by several SAS patrols. Roberts-Smith was deputy commander of one of these patrols.
The compound was thought to be hiding several militants and was struck by a bomb before Roberts-Smith’s patrol entered. Federal police are investigating eyewitness testimony from SAS members that has implicated Roberts-Smith in the execution of an unarmed Afghan man with a prosthetic leg who was found at the entrance to Whiskey 108.
Defence sources have confirmed at least three SAS members have agreed to testify against Roberts-Smith in a criminal prosecution, alleging the famous soldier executed the man. Under the laws of war, if the man did not pose a threat he should have been detained.
A photo of the dead man obtained by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald shows him lying on his back with no weapon in sight.
In September, The Age and Herald revealed that another AFP taskforce was investigating Roberts-Smith over allegations he kicked a handcuffed and innocent detainee, Ali Jan, off a cliff in the village of Darwan in September 2012.
The Darwan taskforce has also obtained co-operation from SAS witnesses and support staff willing to testify on oath against the decorated soldier.
Roberts-Smith denies all wrongdoing, has a separate account of the day in question and says his accusers are jealous rivals. Sources from the special forces said, in the case of the Darwan incident, Roberts-Smith was relying on the testimony of an SAS soldier who claims it was he who shot Ali Jan because he was a hostile insurgent posing a risk to Australian soldiers. – Nine