SYDNEY – Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with five counts of war crime murder over the alleged killing of unarmed Afghan civilians during Australia’s operations in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Roberts-Smith who was awarded the Victoria Cross and the Medal of Gallantry will face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Police allege the victims were detained and unarmed at the time they were killed.
The arrest follows a $300 million investigation lasting more than a decade. It also follows a civil defamation trial Roberts-Smith brought against journalists in 2018 and lost after a judge found the war crimes reporting was substantially true. He appealed. He lost again.
Meanwhile David McBride (the military whistleblower who helped expose the same pattern of alleged war crimes) remains in prison. McBride was sentenced in 2024 after leaking classified material to journalists. Senator David Shoebridge responded to the Roberts-Smith arrest with two words: “Release David McBride.”
“We welcome this step toward accountability” a spokesperson from the Australian Centre for International Justice said. “But we note the uncomfortable reality that a man who reported potential war crimes is behind bars while those who may have committed them were walking free until yesterday.”
A government spokesperson said the cases are “entirely separate matters” and that “the justice system operates independently.” They declined to explain how blowing the whistle on potential war crimes gets you imprisoned while actually committing alleged war crimes gets you a Victoria Cross and a senior media job.
Senator Pauline Hanson called the arrest “disgraceful” and said she would not abandon Roberts-Smith. She did not extend the same courtesy to the Afghan victims.
One told the truth. One allegedly told subordinates to pull the trigger. Only one of them spent last night in his own bed.
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