Prominent Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith fails to win defamation case related to war crimes accusations

Australian court found Ben Roberts-Smith likely killed unarmed civilians in Afghanistan. In a significant development, an Australian court has ruled against Ben Roberts-Smith, a highly decorated soldier who was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery.
The court concluded that Roberts-Smith probably killed unarmed civilians in Afghanistan, aligning with the allegations made by three newspapers in 2018.

Roberts-Smith, a former member of the elite Special Air Services Regiment (SASR), had filed a defamation lawsuit against the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Canberra Times after they published reports accusing him of murdering Afghans during multiple deployments.

Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko delivered the ruling on Thursday, bringing an end to a lengthy trial and dealing another blow to the reputation of Australia's military, which has already been tarnished by revelations unveiled during the 100 days of testimony.

Justice Besanko determined that The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Canberra Times had substantially established the truth of several claims regarding Ben Roberts-Smith, although not all of them. In some instances, the papers were found to have demonstrated contextual truth, which is a defense recognized under Australia's Defamation Act. However, in other cases, the truth was not established by the publications.

The most damning findings of the court stated that the papers had substantiated the claim that Roberts-Smith, a former special forces soldier, kicked an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered his subordinates to shoot him. Additionally, the court found substantial truth in the allegations that Roberts-Smith shot and killed a man with a prosthetic leg in Afghanistan, then brought the leg back to Australia and encouraged his soldiers to use it as a drinking vessel.

Roberts-Smith asserted that the publications had damaged his reputation, portraying him as a person who had "violated the moral and legal principles of military engagement" and brought disgrace upon his country and the Australian army.

In response to the court's decision, the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan remarked that foreign forces had committed numerous crimes during the 20-year war in the country. A spokesperson for the group, Bilal Karimi, stated that the incidents presented in the court case were just a fraction of the many alleged crimes that occurred, expressing distrust in any global court's ability to address them.

During the summary judgement read out in Sydney, Judge Anthony Besanko stated that, based on the balance of probabilities, the respondents (newspapers) had substantially established the truth of several allegations. This includes the claim that Roberts-Smith kicked an unarmed and handcuffed Afghan man off a cliff in 2012 and ordered two soldiers in his unit to kill the severely injured man.