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Australia's most decorated soldier loses defamation case for alleged war crimes
June 1, 20233:00 AM ET
By The Associated Press
SYDNEY — Australia's most decorated living war veteran unlawfully killed prisoners and committed other war crimes in Afghanistan, a judge ruled Thursday in dismissing the claims by Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith that he was defamed by media.
Federal Court judge Anthony Besanko ruled that the articles published in 2018 were substantially true about a number of war crimes committed by Roberts-Smith, a former Special Air Service Regiment corporal who now is a media company executive.
These allegations included that Roberts-Smith, who was also awarded the Medal of Gallantry for his Afghan war service, killed a prisoner who had a prosthetic leg by firing a machine gun into the man's back in 2009.
He kept the man's prosthetic as a novelty beer drinking vessel.
The accusations also included Roberts-Smith had kicked an unarmed, handcuffed farmer off a cliff into a riverbed where an SAS colleague shot the farmer dead in 2012.
More:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/01/1179376161/australias-most-decorated-soldier-loses-defamation-case-for-alleged-war-crimes
