Elon Musk has expressed his surprise over the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most acclaimed living soldier, by calling the situation ‘insane’ in a brief yet high-visibility post on his social media platform, X.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who also owns X, made his remarks on Tuesday following a widely shared post that revealed Roberts-Smith had been detained due to alleged war crimes committed during his military service in Afghanistan.

Roberts-Smith now faces five charges of war crimes, including murder. He appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon but was denied bail. Subsequently, he was moved to Sydney’s Silverwater Prison, where he spent the night. He is scheduled to have another bail hearing on Wednesday morning.

Musk’s comments were in response to a post by Drew Pavlou, an Australian social media personality and conservative political activist who showed support for Roberts-Smith.

Earlier that day, Roberts-Smith, a recipient of the Victoria Cross for Australia, was apprehended by Australian Federal Police at Sydney Domestic Airport. He had just arrived on a flight from Brisbane.

Additional information has surfaced, indicating that the former SAS corporal was arrested in front of his teenage twin daughters and his girlfriend. They were together for what was intended to be a family vacation.

Vision captured AFP officers escorting him on the tarmac shortly after the aircraft touched down, with officers waiting at the arrivals gate.

The charges follow a lengthy joint investigation by the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) and the AFP into alleged unlawful killings during Australia’s military deployment in Afghanistan.

Billionaire Elon Musk tweeted about the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith on Tuesday

The two-metre-tall decorated former soldier was handcuffed and marched through Sydney Airport following his arrest by the AFP

Later on Tuesday afternoon the 47-year-old was charged with war crimes

Each offence Roberts-Smith has been charged with has a maximum penalty of life in prison. 

According to investigators, the charges are connected to alleged incidents in Uruzgan Province across multiple tours. 

Prosecutors allege Roberts‑Smith intentionally caused the death of a person during a April 12, 2009 operation at Kakarak. 

He also allegedly aided, abetted, counselled or procured another person to intentionally cause a death during the same operation.

Further charges are connected to a separate incident on or about September 11, 2012 at Darwan, where he is accused of assisting in the intentional killing of a person.

Authorities also allege Roberts‑Smith acted alongside another individual to intentionally cause a death on or about October 20, 2012 at Syahchow, as well as aiding or procuring a killing at the same location and date.

Among the allegations are that he shot dead one already-captured man and brought his prosthetic leg back to Australia to use as a trophy to drink beer. 

He is also accused of kicking a man, whose arms were tied, off a 10metre cliff before ordering another soldier to shoot him.

Musk replied to a comment from Australian activist Drew Pavlou

A 2011 photo of Corporal Benjamin Roberts-Smith as he was awarded the Victoria Cross in Perth with his then-wife Emma Roberts-Smith and their five-month-old twins, Eve (red) and Elizabeth (blue) Roberts-Smith

Footage captured Roberts-Smith being escorted away by AFP officers on the tarmac at Sydney Airport

The Victoria Cross recipient will face court later on Tuesday

Roberts‑Smith earned the Victoria Cross in 2011 for what was officially described as extraordinary bravery, after single‑handedly assaulting Taliban machine‑gun positions to protect his fellow soldiers. 

For years, he was publicly celebrated as a national war hero, later becoming a prominent public figure and media executive.

‘This is how we repay him?’ Pavlou said in his X post.

‘Tell me: When does the Taliban plan on holding war crimes tribunals into their own people? When do the Taliban plan on holding themselves accountable for terrorism?’

The arrest marks a dramatic escalation in a legal saga that has already reshaped Australia’s understanding of its longest war. 

It follows years of investigative reporting, internal defence inquiries, and the establishment of the OSI to pursue potential criminal accountability arising from the Afghanistan conflict.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese repeatedly refused to weigh in on Roberts-Smith’s case during a press conference on Tuesday. 

‘I have no intention of commenting on a matter that’s clearly before the courts,’ he told reporters. ‘It is very important that there not be political engagement in what is a matter that is now the subject of legal proceedings, so I don’t intend to comment.’

Ben Roberts-Smith has been the subject of an investigation by the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) for more than a decade

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson vowed to stand by Roberts-Smith in the wake of his arrest as she slammed authorities over the huge cost to reach this stage.

‘I remain steadfast in my support,’ the senator posted online.

‘Ben, his immediate and broader defence family need the Australian people’s support right now and I will not abandon him like so many other politicians.

‘AFP and OSI have spent $300million over 10 years to get to this point.’

Greens leader David Shoebridge said his arrest ‘highlights the appalling cost of war on all sides’.

The Office of the Special Investigator, comprised of 54 investigators, has been investigating dozens of cases involving allegations of war crimes by ADF members in Afghanistan.

Out of the 53 investigations, 39 have been provisionally finalised.

OSI director Ross Barnett said the cases were extremely complex because many of the allegations involved incidents more than a decade ago, in countries thousands of kilometres away and there were no post-mortem reports. 

Roberts-Smith will be the second Australian soldier to be charged with war crimes under domestic law after another ex-SAS soldier, Oliver Schulz, was charged in 2023 over the war crime of the 2012 murder of a young man in Afghanistan.

Schulz has maintained his innocence. His matter is yet to go to trial.