Roberts-Smith Charged with Murder, War Crimes

0:00Ben Robert Smith, Australia's most decorated living soldier and a Victoria cross-winner, got hit with serious charges Tuesday. The 47-year-old former SAS trooper faces two counts of murder and three counts of aiding war crimes from his time in Afghanistan between two, 2009 and 2012. He was arrested right at Sydney domestic airport after flying in from Queensland, then spent the night in prison. He's doing bail-core Wednesday, where life in jail looms as the max penalty. The arrest went down publicly, with federal police waiting for his Qantas flight. Footage shows him casually dressed, walking the tarmac flanked by officers before they whisked him off to a station, and then jail. Supporters say it was time for maximum hurt, especially since his teenage twin daughters were there. His backers are fired up, blasting the move as calculated distress, and noting Channel 9 cameras were already set up for exclusive shots. This comes after Robert Smith lost a big defamation suit against newspapers in 2022, where

1:01a judge found on the civil standard. He been involved in some killings. Legal experts call this a game-changer for Australia. It's rare to prosecute war crimes from overseas like this, but with another ex-sass soldier charged last year, it might open the door to more cases. Challenges ahead include old evidence from a hard-to-reach war zone and proving it beyond reasonable doubt, unlike his prior civil loss. Officers have tough hurdles, but the world's watching as this shifts from civil courts to criminal ones, potentially setting precedents down under. Stay tuned for how his bail hearing shakes out. I'm Corey with The Story, that's your Adelaide News Today update. AI powered and always on.