American liberated by Taliban BACK HOME
American Dennis Coyle returns to the United States and hugs his loved ones after being arrested and held by the Taliban in Afghanistan for over a year, even though he has never been charged with a crime.
Australian authorities have arrested the country’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, and charged him with five counts of murder over war crimes allegedly committed during the war in Afghanistan.
Roberts-Smith, a former member of the Australian Defense Force, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday. His arrest has sparked outrage from a former Australian prime minister, who argued it is unfair to judge the actions of “men in deadly combat by the standards of ordinary civilian life.” X owner Elon Musk also weighed in on the arrest, calling it “insane.”
The Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Special Investigator said Roberts-Smith is charged in connection with the killings of five unarmed Afghans in three separate incidents between 2009 and 2012. AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett alleged Roberts-Smith killed the unarmed Afghans himself or ordered a subordinate to kill them. If convicted, Roberts-Smith faces up to life in prison on each charge.
“It will be alleged that the victims were not taking part in the hostilities at the time of their alleged murder AfghanistanBarrett said during a press conference. “It will be alleged that the victims were being held, unarmed and under the control of ADF members when they were killed.”
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Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney on June 9, 2021. Australia’s most decorated living war veteran on Tuesday, July 11, 2023, appealed a civil court ruling that blamed him for the unlawful killing of four Afghans. (Rick Rycroft/AP)
The investigation into Roberts-Smith began in 2021, said Ross Barnett, director of investigations in the Office of the Special Investigator. Roberts-Smith subsequently received the Victoria Cross storming two enemy machine guns during his fifth tour in Afghanistan.
Barnett said at the news conference that the investigation took place “under challenging circumstances” as some of the killings occurred more than a decade ago and investigators were unable to visit Afghanistan.
“We don’t have access to the crime scene, we don’t have photographs, maps, measurements, projectile recovery, blood spatter analysis, all those things that we would normally get at a crime scene,” Barnett said at the news conference.
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Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith VC, MG attends a Victoria Cross and George Cross Association reunion service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church on May 30, 2012 in London, England. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
While Australia’s current Prime Minister has yet to comment on the arrest, former Australian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott expressed support for Roberts-Smith on X in a lengthy post.
“If Ben Roberts-Smith committed an offence, why was this not picked up prior to his gallantry awards and why wasn’t any culture of brutality towards prisoners discovered by his senior officers, and dealt with quickly, rather than allowed to fester, as alleged, for more than a decade?” Abbot wrote.
Allegations that Roberts-Smith was guilty of war crimes began circulating publicly in 2017 and 2018 in articles published by The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times.
Roberts-Smith brought a defamation suit against the Papers, which became Australia’s most expensive defamation lawsuit, but in 2023 a Federal Court judge ruled that four of the six murder allegations brought by the Papers against Roberts-Smith were legitimate.
In one of the charges deemed substantiated by Judge Anthony Besanko, Roberts-Smith allegedly marched a handcuffed Afghan man named Ali Jan off the edge of a 35-foot cliff. He survived the fall, but Roberts-Smith and his fellow soldiers walked along a sidewalk to meet him. Roberts-Smith then ordered a subordinate, known in court as Person 11, to shoot him.
Ben Roberts-Smith leaves the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney on June 7, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)
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The Supreme Court dismissed Roberts-Smith’s appeal against the ruling in September 2025.
The criminal charges against Roberts-Smith stem from a joint effort between OSI and AFP. The two Australian agencies have conducted 53 investigations into ADF members linked to allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan. Ten of the investigations are still ongoing.
