Ben Roberts-Smith will attend an Anzac Day service in Queensland on Saturday morning, describing the day as \u201csacred\u201d to him, the first commemoration since he was criminally charged.<\/p>\n
Roberts-Smith, the recipient of the Victoria Cross and once one of Australia\u2019s most lionised soldiers, faces five charges of the war crime of murder, allegedly committed during his service with the SAS in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.<\/p>\n
In a statement provided to the Guardian, Roberts-Smith said he greatly appreciated the support shown to him by veterans and other members of the community.<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAnzac Day is sacred to me and every other veteran. I will be attending to pay my respects and I encourage everyone else to.\u201d<\/p>\n Roberts-Smith has been living in Queensland since being released on bail last week<\/a>. He is not allowed to leave the state, except for visits to NSW and to Western Australia for medical and legal purposes.<\/p>\n The Returned and Services League said Roberts-Smith was welcome, as any veteran and member of the Australian community is, to attend an Anzac service in commemoration.<\/p>\n RSL Australia national president, Peter Tinley, himself an SAS veteran, said: \u201cthe Anzac Spirit doesn\u2019t just live in history.<\/p>\n \u201cIt lives in the choices we make today, the way we treat each other, and the unity we show when we come together.\u201d<\/p>\n Roberts-Smith, a former SAS corporal, is accused of killing unarmed, handcuffed civilians who were in the custody of Australian soldiers and posed no risk to safety, in situations where there was no active engagement in conflict.<\/p>\n He has vehemently denied the charges<\/a>, saying \u201cI categorically deny all of these allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd while I would have preferred these charges not be brought, I will be taking this opportunity to finally clear my name. I\u2019m proud of my service in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n It comes as a group whose founder describes himself as a \u201cwhite nationalist\u201d is set to hold a rally in support of Roberts-Smith in Melbourne on the day after Anzac day. Neither Roberts-Smith nor his family are in any way involved in the rally, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The rally, which calls for the charges against Roberts-Smith to be dropped, is being planned by a group called the National Workers Alliance, which describes itself on promotional material as an \u201cAustralian nationalist organisation for the preservation of European culture and identity\u201d.<\/p>\n The National Workers Alliance disrupted an event in February<\/a> held by Liberal MP Tim Wilson, and the group\u2019s leader, Matt Trihey, has stated he is a \u201cwhite nationalist\u201d in a video posted on its social media.<\/p>\n Trihey, in a written response to Guardian Australia, claimed he had been in contact with a member of Roberts-Smith\u2019s family who had approved the rally.<\/p>\n But when contacted by Guardian Australia, a spokesperson for Roberts-Smith said: \u201cMr Roberts-Smith and his family are not in any way involved in this rally, nor associated with its organisers, and have not been consulted by the group in question.\u201d<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s rally is also being promoted by a group called Fight for Australia, formerly known as March for Australia, which has staged major anti-immigration rallies across Australia<\/a>. Fight for Australia has been encouraging supporters to contact local RSL branches and ask that welcomes to country are not included in Anzac Day ceremonies, claiming the dawn service \u201cis not the place for Welcome to Country\u201d.<\/p>\n On Friday, the group wrote online \u201cWill you be be [sic] booing the welcome to country this year?\u201d alongside a video of Melbourne\u2019s Anzac Day 2025 ceremony, where Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown was booed by members of the National Socialist Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fight for Australia have also been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Roberts-Smith will attend an Anzac Day service in Queensland on Saturday morning, describing the day as \u201csacred\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-628248","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\/628248","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=628248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}