On September 11, 2012, Ben Roberts-Smith, the former Australian special forces soldier, kicked a handcuffed Afghan farmer in the chest from behind and threw him off a small cliff. After the fall, Roberts-Smith ordered a subordinate to execute him. Years earlier, in 2009, the award-winning member of the Australian Army murdered an unarmed Afghan prisoner and ordered the execution of an elderly prisoner in the same place. These are just some of the facts for which the Australian Federal Police arrested Ben Roberts-Smith this Tuesday in Sydney, whom He will be tried for multiple war crimes.
the arrest and indictment of Roberts-Smith comes after a criminal investigation that has lasted five years and in which eyewitnesses from the special forces, among others, have testified having witnessed how the soldier executed or ordered executions of defenseless detainees during his stay in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
The Office of the Principal Investigator (OSI) and the Australian Federal Police have reported that the former special forces soldier will be charged with the following offences:
- War crime of murder for intentionally causing the death of a person, around April 12, 2009, in Kakarak, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.
- War crime of murder for having aided, abetted, advised or induced another person to intentionally cause the death of a person, on or about April 12, 2009, in Kakarak, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
- War crime of murder for having aided, abetted, advised or induced another person to intentionally cause the death of a person, on or about September 11, 2012, in Darwan, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
- War crime of murdertogether with another person, for intentionally causing the death of a person, on or about October 20, 2012, in Syahchow, Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
- War crime of murder for having aided, abetted, advised or induced another person to intentionally cause the death of a person, on or about October 20, 2012, in Syahchow, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.
For all of these charges, Ben Roberts-Smith faces the maximum penalty for war crimes offenses in Australia, i.e. life sentence.
