Former Australian Special Air Service soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, once celebrated as the nation's most decorated living serviceman, has been arrested on war crimes charges related to his deployment in Afghanistan, The Guardian reports.
The arrest on Monday marks a watershed moment in Australia's reckoning with alleged atrocities committed by its elite forces during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. Roberts-Smith, 47, was taken into custody at his home in Queensland and is expected to face multiple charges including murder and complicity in war crimes.
The former corporal, who received the Victoria Cross—Australia's highest military honor—for actions in 2010, has been the subject of extensive investigations following revelations in the Brereton Report, a four-year inquiry that found credible evidence of war crimes by Australian special forces personnel between 2005 and 2016.
To understand today's headlines, we must look at yesterday's decisions. The Brereton Report, released in 2020, documented a disturbing culture within parts of the SAS, including allegations of unlawful killings of prisoners and civilians, a practice referred to internally as "blooding" junior soldiers. The report recommended criminal investigations into 19 current or former special forces personnel.
Roberts-Smith has consistently denied any wrongdoing. In 2022, he lost a high-profile defamation case against several Australian newspapers that had published allegations of war crimes. The federal court found on the balance of probabilities that Roberts-Smith had committed murder and had been involved in kicking a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff.
The arrest follows years of investigation by the Office of the Special Investigator, a prosecutorial body established specifically to examine alleged war crimes by forces in . Sources familiar with the investigation suggest that prosecutors believe they have gathered sufficient evidence to proceed with charges that could result in life imprisonment.
