An Afghan farmer testifying at Ben Roberts-Smith's defamation trial has denied lying about seeing a "big soldier" during an SAS mission when a man named Ali Jan was allegedly kicked off a cliff.
Man Gul, a farmer from Darwan, Uruzgan province, on Friday resumed giving evidence at the Federal Court trial about the SAS raid on his village on September 11, 2012, in which Ali Jan was killed.
Three newspapers allege Ali Jan was handcuffed and kicked off a cliff at Darwan while Mr Roberts-Smith says he was a Taliban spotter shot in a cornfield.
Mr Gul, via audio-visual link from Kabul, rejected suggestions from Mr Roberts-Smith's barrister Bruce McClintock SC that he didn't see a "big soldier" on the day of the raid.
The witness has previously testified that while handcuffed during the raid he was hit twice by a big soldier.
"I saw him," Mr Gul said via a Pashto interpreter.
He denied making up seeing the big soldier at the behest of another person, telling the court "no one has suggested that to me, no one has told me what to say and what not to say".
He also rejected that he discussed the issue of the big soldier with another Darwan local, Mohammed Hanifa.
Mr Hanifa, another witness in the case, has testified this week that he saw Ali Jan kicked into a river bed by a big soldier then saw Ali Jan dragged to a berry tree by two soldiers.
"No we had no such conversation ... we both saw it, also the third person Ali Jan but unfortunately he's not alive," Mr Gul told the court.
He has testified that after being cut free of his handcuffs he asked Mr Hanifa about Ali Jan's whereabouts and that Mr Hanifa told him Ali Jan was kicked "down to the river".
Mr Gul said he later went to the river bed and saw blood, then walked near to a berry tree where Ali Jan was on his back dead with gunshot wounds to the jaw and skull.
The witness has testified that a small group of villagers then cleaned Ali Jan's face of dust, brought him under the shade of the tree, then put a shawl over his body.
Mr McClintock put to Mr Gul on Friday that the dead man he saw was not Ali Jan.
"It was Ali Jan, I knew Ali Jan," Mr Gul replied.
The trial in Sydney continues.
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