Australia's most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been arrested and charged with five counts of war-crime murder over the alleged killings of unarmed Afghans during deployments in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
The Australian Federal Police said Roberts-Smith was taken into custody at Sydney Airport and will face court on charges tied to killings that investigators say involved people who were not engaged in hostilities and were under military control at the time.
Police said the victims were unarmed and under Australian military control, while the charges involve five alleged war-crime murders, according to CNN.
The accusations include claims that Roberts-Smith shot dead an unarmed Afghan teenager and that a handcuffed man was forced off a cliff before being ordered killed. Those allegations have been central to the case and to the scrutiny surrounding Roberts-Smith's military record.
The arrest follows years of legal and public examination. In a 2023 defamation case, a federal judge found that claims Roberts-Smith murdered civilians and abused detainees in Afghanistan were substantially true, and that ruling was later upheld on appeal. The criminal investigation grew out of that evidence and the wider findings of the Brereton Report, ABC reported.
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The Brereton inquiry, released in 2020, found credible evidence that Australian special forces unlawfully killed Afghan civilians and prisoners, prompting further police action and review by the Office of the Special Investigator. The current case is among the most serious war-crimes prosecutions involving an Australian veteran of the Afghanistan war.
Roberts-Smith has denied wrongdoing and has said he will fight the allegations. His legal team has previously argued that the claims against him were false and relied on disputed witness accounts.
Authorities have said the case remains before the courts, and Roberts-Smith is expected to appear for bail proceedings. If convicted, he could face a life sentence under Commonwealth law, as per NPR.
