Dhe Australia’s most decorated living war veteran has committed war crimes in Afghanistan, according to a judge’s decision. Among other things, Ben Roberts-Smith killed prisoners, the federal judge said on Thursday. He thus dismissed the complaint of Victoria Cross honoree Roberts-Smith, who felt slandered by the media.
Judge Anthnoy Besanko ruled the articles published in 2018 detailing a series of war crimes committed by Roberts-Smith were essentially true. Roberts-Smith is a former private in the Special Air Service Regiment and is now a senior media company.
Ben Roberts-Smith at the Sydney 2021 trial
Quelle: Getty Images/Sam Mooy
Roberts-Smith, who was also awarded the Medal of Bravery for his service in Afghanistan, violated moral and legal norms in military combat operations, the judge found. With his behavior he brought shame on Australia.
Prosthesis as a beer glass, barbaric initiation rituals
Documented allegations include that Roberts-Smith, son of a judge, killed a prisoner with a prosthetic leg in Afghanistan by shooting him in the back with a machine gun in 2009. He kept the prosthesis as an original beer glass. He is also said to have pushed an unarmed, handcuffed farmer over a cliff into a riverbed in 20212 and ordered a soldier under his command to shoot the injured man. On another occasion, according to the court, Roberts-Smith pressured a newly deployed and inexperienced soldier to kill an elderly, unarmed Afghan in order to train the newcomer to war.
The 44-year-old had denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers accused “embittered people” in his regiment of an envy campaign. The civil defamation lawsuit was brought against the newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.
Nick McKenzie, one of the reporters responsible for the controversial articles, praised the veterans who testified against the supposed national hero. They told the truth about who Roberts-Smith was – “a war criminal, a tyrant and a liar”.
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