In a case that has captured widespread attention, a former Special Air Service (SAS) soldier was taken into custody on April 7. He faces serious charges, accused of either personally killing or ordering the execution of five unarmed detainees during his deployment in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

Details from the bail hearing of the 47-year-old, which took place at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court, have been made public. These documents reveal plans he and his partner, Sarah Matulin, were making to establish a business abroad.

In her affidavit to the court, Matulin explained their desire to leave Australia in search of a more stable life. However, she emphasized that her partner was always prepared to return if legal charges emerged.

“We never intended to evade these charges,” she stated. “Our plan was always to confront any criminal allegations directly if they came to light.”

She further disclosed, “We have discussed numerous times that should the situation arise, he would willingly surrender himself to the authorities.”

In March 2023, Roberts-Smith reached out to the CEO of a weather protection company in Chiang Mai, Thailand. His aim was to network and perhaps discuss business opportunities over a casual drink.

By October, the couple had become serious about moving overseas, contacting a friend who owned an avocado farm in Myanmar to discuss opportunities, Matulin wrote.

Later that month, Roberts-Smith had started inquiring about buying a fitness and wellness business in Spain, and began the visa process to move there.

Matulin said it was no secret they wanted to move to Spain because they had openly discussed this with family and friends.

In his own affidavit, Roberts-Smith said he had flown overseas 28 times since 2018 – including a taxpayer-funded trip to the UK for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022.

He had always returned despite knowing he was being investigated for war crimes, he wrote.

His lawyer Karen Espiner revealed in another affidavit that she offered to have her client arrested by “appointment” by handing himself in at a police station if police disclosed he was going to be charged.

The solicitor said Roberts-Smith did not tell the Officer of the Special Investigator – which was probing the war crime allegations – of the Spanish plans because there were no restrictions on his travel at the time.

The Victoria Cross recipient has consistently proclaimed his innocence, including during a failed defamation action against Nine, the publisher of this website, over articles detailing a number of alleged war crimes.

While the war veteran’s former employer Kerry Stokes had funded the defamation proceedings, Roberts-Smith revealed he had to liquidate all his assets to fund the later failed appeals.

His parents also coughed up $400,000 to pay for his legal costs, his affidavit says.

“I have no assets and my personal savings are significantly depleted,” he wrote.

Roberts-Smith receives a service pension of $4500 a fortnight, his affidavit says.

He is accused of machine-gunning an Afghan prisoner Mohammed Essa and ordering the execution of his son Ahmadullah to “blood the rookie” during a raid at a compound called Whiskey 108 in April 2009.

Ahmadullah had a prosthetic leg.

The then-SAS soldier placed firearms on the bodies to falsely claim they were enemy combatants, court documents seen by AAP say.

In August 2012 at the village of Darwan, Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking a hand-cuffed Ali Jan off a 10-metre cliff before ordering that he be dragged over a creek bed and shot.

Two months later at Syahchow, he allegedly lined up two prisoners in a corn field, shooting one of them with another soldier.

He ordered a subordinate to shoot the other before throwing a grenade on the bodies to cover up what he had done, court documents say.

The matter will return to court on June 2.

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