{"id":595889,"date":"2026-04-09T15:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595889\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:14:18","slug":"andrew-hastie-could-testify-in-murder-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595889\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Hastie could testify in murder trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Australia must acknowledge \u201cwrongdoing\u201d in Afghanistan while also respecting the rule of law following the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith, says shadow defence minister and former SAS captain Andrew Hastie.<\/p>\n

Roberts-Smith, Australia\u2019s most-decorated living soldier, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder allegedly committed during his deployment to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\"FederalFederal Liberal MP and former elite soldier Andrew Hastie (left), and Ben Roberts-Smith.Louise Kennerley<\/p>\n

During the arrest, described by the BBC as \u201cone of the most significant moments in Australian military history<\/a>\u201d, Roberts-Smith was escorted off a plane onto the tarmac at Sydney Airport and taken into custody.<\/p>\n

The Victoria Cross recipient \u2013 whose legal fees in a failed defamation trial against this masthead were bankrolled by billionaire Kerry Stokes \u2013 will face a bail hearing on April 17.<\/p>\n

Roberts-Smith has always denied the allegations against him.<\/p>\n

Hastie, who served multiple tours of Afghanistan, said on Thursday that he might be called to testify against his former colleague. In a statement posted to his website<\/a>, Hastie noted that he was one of 21 SAS veterans subpoenaed as a witness in Roberts-Smith\u2019s defamation action.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI gave testimony under oath, as required by law,\u201d he said. \u201cMr Roberts-Smith is now facing criminal charges in relation to this operational mission, so it is possible that I will be called as a witness to this trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking earlier on Thursday to 2GB radio, Hastie warned that political commentary must not be allowed to prejudice the upcoming proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen Roberts-Smith is entitled to the presumption of innocence,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s entitled to a fair trial, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m very circumspect about making comment, because the last thing we want is for his trial to be prejudiced by political commentary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hastie said that Tuesday was a \u201csad and sobering day\u201d for many Australians, but that the rule of law must prevail to ensure the former soldier received a fair trial.<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Hastie in Afghanistan in 2013.<\/p>\n

In Roberts-Smith\u2019s defamation loss, the Federal Court found that, on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith was a war criminal.<\/p>\n

Hastie said it was \u201chard to avoid the reality\u201d of wrongdoing within the elite regiment following the handing down of the Brereton report into war crimes in 2020<\/a>. \u201c[It] found wrongdoing was done,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was some wrongdoing that was found to be credible \u2026 part of us moving forward as a country is acknowledging where we\u2019ve done well and done right, and also acknowledging where we\u2019ve gone wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The West Australian MP, often touted as a possible future leader of the Coalition<\/a>, said that while \u201cthings never go right\u201d at the \u201cpointy end\u201d of combat, the actions of a few did not define the whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say to [veterans] that we all had a mission to serve our country, and 99 per cent of us did our job with honour, and we did it in a war that was incredibly frustrating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"<p>\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reflecting on his own service, Hastie spoke of the brutal complexities of the Afghanistan conflict, and the devastating civilian toll.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil you\u2019ve, like me, stood over the dead bodies of an eight-year-old and a six-year-old boy, which have just been torn up by a 30-millimetre cannon [fired] by a US Apache, I\u2019m just not going to take a lecture from people about the reality of war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hastie said the SAS remained a critical national capability and defended the men and women serving in the regiment. He said it was crucial that politicians like him said as little as possible about the upcoming trial of the former soldier.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Roberts-Smith] will have his day in court, and one way or another, there will be an outcome,\u201d Hastie said. \u201cBut if this process is prejudiced, we\u2019re actually not doing Ben Roberts-Smith a service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some politicians have opted for silence when asked about the case \u2013 including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who cited the looming court case<\/a> \u2013 while others, like Pauline Hanson and Tony Abbott, have forcefully condemned the charges.<\/p>\n

Former prime minister John Howard said on Wednesday that \u201cto some Australians, Roberts-Smith is the modern personification of the great Anzac tradition\u201d.<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"ClayClay Lucas<\/a> is an investigative reporter at The Age who has covered urban affairs, state and federal politics, industrial relations, health and aged care. Email him at clucas@theage.com.au or claylucas@protonmail.com, or via Signal +61439828128.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-595889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}