Three indemnified defence force witnesses have provided written accounts to prosecutors about their “personal involvement” in executing Afghan detainees “at the direction of or in complicity” with war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith, according to court documents.
Mr Roberts-Smith has been charged with five counts of the war crime of murder, related to what investigators allege were unarmed Afghan nationals in 2009 and 2012.
The Victoria Cross recipient is yet to enter pleas but previously denied the allegations during his failed defamation case against Nine newspapers.
Mr Roberts-Smith has been charged with five counts of the war crime of murder. (Supplied: Rocco Fazzari)
Those proceedings resulted in a Federal Court ruling that allegations of four war crime murders were substantially true.
The civil test is different to the criminal test now before the courts, where prosecutors must prove allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
The 47-year-old former Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) soldier was on Friday granted bail in the NSW Local Court on a set of strict conditions and a $250,000 security deposit.
Judge Greg Grogin also agreed to release a 24-page set of alleged facts in the criminal case.
Under the heading “indemnified witnesses”, the document says three witnesses relevant to the current prosecution have been provided “an undertaking” by the Commonwealth DPP.
Those witnesses have “admitted their personal involvement in executing one or more detainees at the direction or with complicity of” their military supervisor Mr Roberts-Smith, according to the alleged facts.
“These witnesses have provided written accounts of their actions.”Loading…Deaths ‘falsely recorded in ADF reporting’, court documents allege
According to the court documents, the deceased include people who were “shot by [Mr Roberts-Smith] personally, or shot by subordinate SASR members in presence of, and acting on the orders of [Mr Roberts-Smith]”.
The alleged facts state that in each instance, the deceased had been captured by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and their death was “falsely recorded in ADF reporting”.
Two murders are alleged to have occurred in April 2009 at a compound dubbed “Whiskey 108” in the Tarin Kowt District of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
The court documents contain allegations that two men, identified as Mohammad Essa and his son, Ahmadullah, were found in a tunnel, handcuffed, and taken away by Mr Roberts-Smith.
Ahmadullah, who wore a prosthetic leg, was allegedly carried outside, thrown to the ground, and shot by Mr Roberts-Smith with a belt-fed machine gun, according to the court documents — an incident which was allegedly witnessed by “several ADF members”.
According to the set of alleged facts, two murders are alleged to have occurred in April 2009 at a compound dubbed “Whiskey 108”. (AAP: Alan Porritt)
Mohammad Essa was allegedly placed on his knees and shot dead by another SAS soldier, who was referred to as “the rookie”, under the direction of Mr Roberts-Smith.
Mr Roberts-Smith is quoted in the alleged facts as saying: “Shoot that c***”.
Darwan mission allegations
Another charge against Mr Roberts-Smith relates to a mission in the village of Darwan, also in Uruzgan Province, following the killing of three Australian personnel by Afghan National Army sergeant Hekmatullah in August 2012.
The following month, SAS patrols in Darwan were tactically questioning three handcuffed Afghan nationals, including a man named Ali Jan.
Mr Roberts-Smith is accused of punching and physically assaulting the detainees, before taking Ali Jan to a cliff edge and kicking him, “causing him to fall approximately 10 metres and causing injuries including the loss of teeth,” the court documents say.
In a dry creek bed below, Mr Roberts-Smith allegedly had a short conversation with comrades before Ali Jan was shot dead, according to the court documents.
Prosecutors allege in the court documents that he was killed by a soldier in Mr Roberts-Smith’s patrol.
It’s alleged in the court documents that a radio was placed near Ali Jan’s body before photographs were taken “to support the false claim that Ali Jan had been an insurgent spotter who presented a threat to ADF troops; and who was lawfully killed”.
Another charge against Mr Roberts-Smith relates to a mission in the village of Darwan. (ABC News)
The court documents refer to evidence from a pathologist, Professor Noel Woodford, who “cannot exclude a linear void in bloodstaining on the arm of Ali Jan as being caused by the presence of plastic handcuffs” between the time of injury and the photographs being taken.
Two further war crime murder charges relate to an incident in a village called Syahchow in October 2012, where two detained Afghan men were allegedly interrogated, blindfolded and killed.
Mr Roberts-Smith allegedly threw a grenade towards the deceased men, which detonated, in an action described in the court material as being done to support a “false claim” the men were killed during a lawful engagement.
The document of alleged facts outlines “common themes” of each incident, including that each alleged victim was unarmed and in a location where Mr Roberts-Smith “could reasonably have suspected insurgents to be located”.
The court documents say each alleged murder took place in an environment where the ADF was “in control”, and that “evidence was planted or falsely associated with each deceased”.
Each deceased person was also handcuffed, detained for a period, and questioned prior to their alleged execution, the court material said.
Mr Roberts-Smith’s case is expected to return to court in early June.
His lawyers on Friday told the court it would likely take years to resolve because it represents “uncharted legal territory” and will take “many twists and turns”.