One of Australia’s most decorated soldiers, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been arrested and is expected to be charged with five counts of the war crime of murder.<\/p>\n
The Victoria Cross recipient was arrested at Sydney Airport’s domestic terminal after a flight from Brisbane this morning.<\/p>\n
The former special forces soldier’s arrest comes after a mammoth defamation trial against Nine Newspapers that in 2023 ended in a court finding that on the balance of probabilities, allegations he was responsible for, or complicit in the deaths of four detainees in Afghanistan were substantially true.<\/p>\n
There have been no findings of guilt against Mr Roberts-Smith to a criminal standard.<\/p>\n
Mr Roberts-Smith’s appeal in the Federal Court was dismissed in May last year, when the Full Court upheld the findings of the trial judge Justice Anthony Besanko.<\/p>\n
In maintaining his innocence after the High Court refused to hear his case in September, Mr Roberts-Smith described the allegations against him in the defamation case as “egregious” and “spiteful”.<\/p>\n
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Krissy Barrett said it would be alleged the victims were unarmed Afghan nationals who “were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder”.<\/p>\n
She said the charges came as a result of a “complex” investigation that was undertaken “thoroughly and meticulously” since 2021 by the AFP and Office of the Special Investigator (OSI).<\/p>\n
“It will be alleged the victims were shot by the accused or shot by subordinate members of the ADF in the presence of, and acting on the orders of the accused,” Commissioner Barrett said at a media conference in Sydney.<\/p>\n
The AFP said the 47-year-old was expected to be charged with five counts of “war crime \u2014 murder” later today.<\/p>\n
The maximum penalty for the offence is life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
They include allegations he intentionally caused the death of a person in April 2009 and in another offence “aided, abetted, counselled or procured” someone to cause the death of someone on the same day in Kakarak, Uruzgan Province.<\/p>\n
The three other charges accuse the former soldier of causing the murder of \u2014 and procuring the murder of \u2014 civilians in Darwan and Syahchow in September and October, 2012.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Barrett said Mr Roberts-Smith was expected to face a NSW court later today.<\/p>\n
A ‘challenging’ investigation<\/p>\n
OSI director of investigations Ross Barnett said Mr Roberts-Smith’s arrest was a “significant step” under “challenging circumstances” and he was “entitled to the presumption of innocence until determined otherwise”.<\/p>\n
Mr Roberts-Smith’s case is one of 53 war crimes allegations the agency has investigated since 2021.<\/p>\n
In total 39 of those have been finalised with no charges, and 10 are currently ongoing.<\/p>\n
Mr Barnett has not ruled out further arrests as investigations continue.<\/p>\n
“If the evidence leads to other people needing to be charged, you can be assured that will happen,” he said.<\/p>\n
This is the second time an Australian soldier has been charged with committing war crimes in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
In 2023 a different Defence Force soldier was charged with war crime murder and his trial is expected to take place in February next year.<\/p>\n
“The alleged conduct related to these charges is confined to a very small section of our trusted and respected ADF which keeps our country safe,” Commissioner Barrett said.<\/p>\n
“The majority of the ADF do our country proud.”<\/p>\n
Mr Barnett said it was a “challenge” that investigators could not physically enter Afghanistan to investigate the claims against Mr Roberts-Smith.<\/p>\n
“So the challenge for investigators is that because we can’t go to that country, we don’t have access to the crime scene,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We don’t have photographs, site plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood spatter analysis, all of those things we would normally get at a crime scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If you add to that that we don’t have access to the deceased, there’s no post-mortem. Therefore, there’s no official cause of death.”<\/p>\n
Mr Barnett said families of the Afghan victims may not be aware of the development because it was “not safe” to make contact with them inside the Taliban-run nation.<\/p>\n
Albanese declines to comment on Roberts-Smith’s arrest<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declined to comment when asked whether the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had sought authorisation from the federal government before Mr Roberts-Smith’s arrest.<\/p>\n
“That is a matter that it’s very important that there not be political engagement in what is a matter that is now the subject of legal proceedings,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I have no intention of prejudicing a matter that clearly is a legal matter and that’s before the courts and any comment would do so.”<\/p>\n
The Australian War Memorial (AWM) in 2023 added information to a display’s text about Mr Roberts-Smith’s Victoria Cross to reflect the Federal Court’s findings earlier that year.<\/p>\n
“The plaque at the memorial that deals with the issues around the charges will be adjusted to reflect this latest development,” AWM chairman Kim Beazley told the ABC today.<\/p>\n
Look back at how ABC readers and other Australians responded to this live
\n moment.<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 7 Apr 2026 at 2:51am<\/p>\n
Press conference has finished<\/p>\n
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett and OSI director of investigations Ross Barnett have finished speaking for the time being.<\/p>\n