Australia’s most decorated soldier has been arrested and charged with five counts of war crimes linked to the killing of unarmed civilians during his deployment in Afghanistan.
Authorities stated that a 47-yr-old former member of the Australian Defence Force had been taken into custody at Sydney Airport, reports RTE.
Court documents identified the individual as Ben Roberts-Smith.
He faces five counts of war crimes in relation to the murders of five individuals in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, according to the Australian Federal Police. The maximum sentence for each charge is life in prison, reports RTE.
“It will be alleged the victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan,” AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett told a press conference.
“It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed and were under the control of ADF members when they were killed,” reports RTE.
She added that police would further allege the victims were either shot directly by the accused or shot by subordinates acting on his instructions and in his presence.
The AFP confirmed he had been refused bail and would appear before a court for a bail hearing the following day, reports RTE.
Mr Roberts-Smith was celebrated as a national hero after receiving several of the country’s highest military honours, including the Victoria Cross, for his conduct across six tours of Afghanistan between 2006 and 2012.
He has continuously denied any allegations of misconduct during his time in service, some of which were first brought to light by Nine Entertainment newspapers through a series of articles beginning in 2018, reports RTE.
Among the allegations reported were that he had fatally shot an unarmed Afghan teenager and kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff before ordering him to be shot dead.
Mr Roberts-Smith, a former member of Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), failed in his attempt to challenge the reports in what became Australia’s costliest defamation trial, with a Federal Court judge ruling in 2023 that the newspapers had proven four of the six murder allegations they had made, reports RTE.
A final appeal was rejected by the High Court in September 2025.
A report published in 2020 uncovered credible evidence that members of Australia’s SAS had killed dozens of unarmed prisoners throughout the prolonged Afghan conflict, reports RTE.
An inquiry into the SAS soldier, conducted by the federal police and the Office of the Special Investigator — established to look into allegations of war crimes by ADF members in Afghanistan — was launched in 2021.
Ross Barnett, Director of Investigations at the OSI, noted that the process was both complex and time-intensive, as authorities were unable to travel to Afghanistan to examine the alleged crime scenes, reports RTE.
“We don’t have access to the crime scenes, 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,” he said at the press conference, reports RTE.
The joint OSI-AFP has conducted 53 investigations into allegations of war crimes by ADF personnel in Afghanistan, with ten still ongoing. The OSI noted that another former special forces soldier is scheduled to stand trial for war crime murder the following February, reports RTE.
“If the evidence leads to other people needing to be charged, you can be assured that will happen,” Mr Barnett added, reports RTE.
Amnesty International described Mr Roberts-Smith’s arrest as a “critical step toward global justice and accountability efforts,” reports RTE.
“Australian authorities must now ensure all credible allegations are fully investigated and, where appropriate, prosecuted,” said Zaki Haidari, Amnesty International Australia strategic campaigner.
Police video footage captured officers accompanying Mr Roberts-Smith off a flight upon his arrival at Sydney Airport and into a police vehicle that was waiting on the tarmac, reports RTE.
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