Former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith‘s appeal of a 2023 defamation ruling has not been successful, with the federal court finding to the civil law standard the Victoria Cross recipient was complicit in war crimes, which included the murder of four Afghan men during his time in Afghanistan. Now, investigators are looking into the possibility of more suspected murders ordered by Roberts-Smith amid claims of new witnesses coming forward, along with video evidence of Roberts-Smith drinking out of the prosthetic leg of a man he executed.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) has been investigating the former soldier for the last four years.
One of the latest discoveries has been a video which reportedly depicted Roberts-Smith drinking from the prosthetic leg of an Afghan man he executed, despite Roberts-Smith’s barrister Bruce McClintock denying that the highly-decorated soldier did this.
“My client did not drink from the leg. The respondents have been desperately trying to find evidence that he did, but he never did,” he told the court, per the Sydney Morning Herald. Roberts-Smith also denied drinking out of the leg during cross-examination.
However, after further investigation by the OSI, the footage has been found and reportedly shows the 46-year-old being handed the leg and drinking from it during a party at a makeshift bar at the Afghanistan base called the Fat Lady’s Arms.
The article also reports the investigation by the OSI — which is comprised of experienced detectives and homicide investigators — has been part of an effort to build a case against Roberts-Smith and several of his accomplices, who were reportedly found to have lied during the defamation proceedings to cover up war crimes, to take to trial in a criminal court.
The new evidence comes after three judges on the bench of the Federal Court upheld the 2023 decision of the defamation trial, confirming the judgement that Roberts-Smith was complicit in the murder of four unarmed prisoners during his deployment between 2009 and 2012.
“The problem for [Roberts-Smith] is that, unlike most homicides, there were three eyewitnesses to this murder,” the three judges said, via the SMH.
“When all is said and done, it is a rare murder that is witnessed by three independent witnesses. The strength of this evidence cannot be erased, and is in no way undermined, by peripheral inconsistencies.”
Roberts-Smith still maintains he has not engaged in any wrongdoing and has indicated an intention to appeal his defamation case to the High Court.
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