Ben Roberts-Smith is ARRESTED over alleged war crimes
- Ben Roberts-Smith was arrested
- He was taken into custody at Sydney Airport
Australia’s most decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested and is due to be charged with five alleged war crimes.
The Victoria Cross recipient was taken into custody at Sydney Airport after arriving on a flight from Brisbane on Tuesday morning.
Footage captured Roberts-Smith being escorted by Australian Federal Police officers on the tarmac who were waiting at the arrivals gate as the plane touched down.
The AFP said Roberts-Smith is expected to be charged with five counts of war crime – murder and is due to appear in a NSW Court later today.
Roberts-Smith, 47, sued Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters for defamation over their reports in 2018, which claimed he had committed war crimes.
But in 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko found the claims that Roberts-Smith was responsible for the murder of four unarmed male civilians when deployed in Afghanistan were substantially true.
The Age’s McKenzie and Masters were first to report details of Roberts-Smith’s arrest on Tuesday morning.
Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested over multiple alleged war crimes
Roberts-Smith had appealed his 2023 Federal Court loss, disputing Justice Besanko’s findings, arguing that was not backed up by sufficient evidence for such serious claims.
Last year, Australia’s highest court refused the former soldier’s application to appeal the Federal Court findings.
It came on the same day the recipient of Australia’s highest two military honours – the Victoria Cross and Medal for Gallantry – was ordered to pay a lump sum of Nine’s legal costs for the unsuccessful Federal Court appeal.
The costs of the 110-day trial and the 10-day appeal are estimated to exceed $30million.
Roberts-Smith’s High Court bid had claimed the Full Court of the Federal Court made an error in assuming he had accepted some allegations which were not re-contested during the appeal.
The articles, published in 2018, included claims Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff and ordered his execution, and machine-gunned another prisoner, taking his prosthetic leg home as a souvenir drinking vessel.
Roberts-Smith has maintained his innocence.
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett is expected to address the media outside the AFP Sydney Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon.
More to come.