Ben Roberts-Smith charged with five war crimes offences

0:00Australia's most decorated soldier, Ben Robert Smith, has been charged with five counts of committing the war crime of murder. The Victoria Cross recipient was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday, after an investigation into the alleged murders of multiple unarmed civilians and prisoners in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. Mr. Robert Smith has been charged with intentionally causing the death of two detainees, while three other offences alleged he aided a battered council or procured someone to cause the death of three other detainees. The offence of war crime murder carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. AFP Commissioner Chrissy Barrett outlined the allegations at a press conference. It will be alleged the victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan. It will be alleged the victims were detained unarmed and were under

1:00the control of ADF members when they were killed. It will be alleged the victims were shot by the accused or shot by subordinate members of the ADF in the presence of and acting on the orders of the accused. The 47-year-old's arrest comes after a mammoth defamation trial against nine newspapers, which ended in a court finding there was substantial truth to allegations. He killed four unarmed civilians in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. That was a civil case, not a criminal one, but now Mr. Robert Smith is facing serious criminal charges, five counts of the war crime of murder. Those charges would need to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, a higher standard than what applied in the defamation proceedings. The director of the office of the Special Investigator Ross Barnett says the joint investigation started in 2021 and was complex. The challenge for investigators is that because we can't

2:04go to that country, we don't have access to the crime scene. We don't have access to the crime scenes. We don't have photographs, site plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood spanner analysis. All of those scenes we would normally get at a crime scene. If you add to that, we don't have access to the deceased. There's no post-mortem. Therefore, there's no official cause of death. There's no recovery of projectiles to link to weapons that might have been carried by members of the ADF. Prime Minister Anthony Albanynsi has refused to respond to questions on the matter. I have no intention of prejudicing a matter that clearly is a legal matter and that's before the courts and any comment would do so. The AFV Commissioner says Mr. Robert Smith's arrest does not reflect on the ADF as a whole. The alleged conduct related to these charges is confined to a very small section of our trusted and respected ADF, which helps keep this country safe.

3:06Today's charges are not reflective of the majority members who serve under the Australian flag with honour, with distinction and with the values of a democratic nation. She says the investigation remains ongoing and anyone with relevant information should come forward to the Office of Special Investigations. The 47-year-old is expected to remain in custody overnight before he faces court on Wednesday.