Australia’s most celebrated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, chose not to seek bail during a Sydney court appearance on Wednesday concerning his war crime murder charges.
Roberts-Smith, distinguished with both the Victoria Cross and the Medal of Gallantry for his actions in Afghanistan, stands as only the second Australian veteran involved in the Afghanistan conflict to face such charges.
The accusations follow a 2020 military investigation that unearthed evidence suggesting that elite units from the Australian Special Air Service and commando regiment had unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers, and other non-combatants.
Over the span of two decades, from 2001 to 2021, approximately 40,000 Australian troops were deployed to Afghanistan, with 41 soldiers losing their lives.
The charges against Roberts-Smith pertain to the deaths of five Afghan individuals in incidents occurring in 2009 and 2012, during his tenure as an elite SAS corporal. Investigations allege that he either directly shot these victims or directed a subordinate to do so.
On Tuesday, police filed five charges against him for war crime murder. However, the court proceedings on Wednesday specified two counts of war crime murder and three counts of aiding or abetting a war crime murder. Each charge could potentially result in a life sentence.
Australian law defines war crime murder as the intentional killing in a context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in the hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war or a wounded soldier.
Roberts-Smith, 47, spent the night in jail after he was arrested at the Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning, and he did not appear in court either in person or by video link Wednesday.
His lawyers did not enter pleas to the charges or apply for his release on bail. The case was adjourned until June 4.
A civil court has already found similar allegations against Roberts-Smith credible in a defamation suit he brought after newspapers published articles in 2018 accusing him of a range of war crimes.
In 2023, a federal judge rejected Roberts-Smithâs claims and ruled that he likely killed four noncombatants unlawfully in 2009 and 2012.
But while the civil court found the war crimes allegations were mostly proven on a balance of probabilities, the war crime murder charges would have to be proved in a criminal court to a higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.
Roberts-Smith is the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.
Former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz has pleaded not guilty to a charge of war crime murder.
He is accused of shooting Afghan man Dad Mohammad three times in the head in an Uruzgan province wheat field in 2012.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers said Schulz’s trial is unlikely to be held before 2027.
