Australia’s most decorated living soldier has been arrested over 5 counts of the war crime of homicide whereas on deployment in Afghanistan, native media reported on Tuesday.
The man, whom police recognized as a 47-year-old former Australian Defence Force member and media named as Ben Roberts-Smith, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning.
He might be charged with 5 counts of war crimes in connection to the homicide of 5 individuals in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, Australian Federal Police (AFP) mentioned. The most penalty for every cost is life imprisonment.
Roberts-Smith was hailed as a nationwide hero after being awarded a number of prime army honors, together with the Victoria Cross, for his actions throughout six excursions of Afghanistan from 2006 to 2012.
He has constantly denied allegations of wrongdoing throughout his service, a few of which had been first reported by Nine Entertainment newspapers in a collection of articles beginning in 2018.
Among the accusations reported had been that Roberts-Smith had shot useless an unarmed Afghan teenager and kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff earlier than ordering him to be shot useless.
Roberts-Smith unsuccessfully challenged the stories in what turned Australia’s most costly defamation trial, with a Federal Court choose ruling in 2023 the newspapers proved 4 of the six homicide accusations they leveled. A ultimate enchantment bid was dismissed by the High Court in September 2025.
A 2020 report discovered credible proof that members of Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) killed dozens of unarmed prisoners within the prolonged Afghan war.
An investigation into the SAS soldier by the AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator, set as much as study allegations of war crimes by Australian protection forces in Afghanistan, was opened in 2021.
Police mentioned the accused man would seem earlier than an area courtroom within the state of New South Wales afterward Tuesday.
Roberts-Smith’s lawyer for his defamation trial didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.