After spending over a week behind bars, Ben Roberts-Smith, a decorated Victoria Cross recipient facing allegations of war crimes, is set to request bail.
The 47-year-old former soldier of the SAS was dramatically arrested on April 7, facing charges related to the murders of five unarmed civilians during his service in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Currently held in remand, Roberts-Smith is scheduled for a hearing at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court today, where he will seek to secure his release on bail.
His court appearance will be conducted via audio-visual link from the prison.
As Australia’s most decorated soldier still living, Roberts-Smith stands accused of personally killing two Afghan nationals and being complicit in the murders of three others.
Court documents allege that in April 2009, during a mission in Kakarak, Uruzgan Province, Roberts-Smith ordered a soldier, referred to as Person 4, to execute Mohammed Essa.
He also allegedly murdered another unarmed civilian, Ahmadullah, during that same raid.
Roberts-Smith allegedly ordered the murder of another man, Ali Jan, during a raid on the village of Darwan, also in Uruzgan Province, in September 2012.
The remaining two charges relate to incidents in Syahchow, Uruzgan.
There, Roberts-Smith is accused of jointly murdering an unnamed Afghan prisoner with another soldier, only known as Person 68, and ordering the execution of another.
Court documents reveal both deceased men were listed as enemies killed in action.
War crime allegations against Roberts-Smith were first exposed by the now Nine-owned Fairfax Media in 2018.
The war veteran sued the paper for defamation in the Federal Court but suffered a crushing defeat with a judge finding the accusations of murder were, on the balance of probabilities, true.
He failed to overturn these findings on appeal to the full Federal Court and the High Court.
The move from a civil case to criminal charges means prosecutors have to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt for a guilty verdict to be handed down.
Roberts-Smith is the second former SAS soldier facing the courts on war crime charges.
Oliver Schultz was charged in 2023 with the war crime of murder of a young man Dad Mohammad in a wheat field in Uruzgan Province in 2012.
Both war crime accused have maintained their innocence.
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