SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s most decorated soldier was “complicit in and responsible for the murder” of three Afghan men on deployment, a judge said, elaborating on his finding against the former SAS special forces corporal in a blockbuster defamation trial.
Ben Roberts-Smith, holder of the Victoria Cross and other top military honors, was also “not an honest and reliable witness in ... many areas” and a bully toward other Australian soldiers, Federal Court Judge Anthony Besanko said in his full judgment.
Besanko on Thursday threw out Roberts-Smith’s defamation case against three Australian newspapers which had accused him of unlawful killings in Afghanistan. Besanko said the media outlets had proven substantial truth in their reporting, ending a case which lifted the veil of secrecy over the elite SAS.
Australian civil courts require a lower threshold to prove accusations than criminal courts do. Roberts-Smith has not been charged with any offences and has not commented since the ruling. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment. Roberts-Smith has since quit his job as a television executive.
Besanko delayed releasing reasons for his judgment to allow the Australian government time to ensure it did not inadvertently divulge national security secrets.
“I have found that the applicant (Roberts-Smith) was complicit in and responsible for the murder of EKIA56 ... in 2009 and the murder of Ali Jan at Darwan on 11 September 2012 and the murder of the Afghan male at Chinartu on 12 October 2012,” Besanko said in his 736-page civil court judgment.
Roberts-Smith was accused by the newspapers of ordering a lower-ranking soldier to shoot dead an “older Afghan male”, identified in the case as EKIA56, to “blood the rookie”, he said.