An Australian court on Friday granted bail with travel restrictions to Ben Roberts-Smith, the country’s most-decorated living war veteran.
The ruling came 10 days after the 47-year-old was charged with five counts of war crimes over the alleged killings of unarmed Afghan civilians while deployed in Afghanistan. Roberts-Smith has denied the accusations. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Judge Greg Grogin told a Sydney court that Roberts-Smith remained entitled to the presumption of innocence despite the seriousness of the allegations. He said the case was likely to take “years” to reach trial, creating exceptional circumstances that justified bail, and ordered a surety of A$250,000 (€150,000, $180,000).
Prosecutors opposed bail, arguing Roberts-Smith posed a flight risk and might interfere with witnesses or evidence. Prosecutor Simon Buchen described the charges as “among the most serious known to the criminal law” and said Roberts-Smith had been “on the cusp of relocating overseas” without notifying authorities when he learned charges were possible.
Police arrested and charged Roberts-Smith last week with five counts alleging the murder of civilians in Uruzgan province between 2009 and 2012. The charges follow a landmark 2020 military report that found evidence that elite SAS and commando troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other non-combatants. Roberts-Smith is accused of personally shooting two victims and ordering subordinates to kill three others.
In 2023 a civil court found similar allegations against Roberts-Smith to be largely credible, rejecting his defamation suit against newspaper reports. During that trial he denied killing an unarmed Afghan or committing war crimes, saying he had been falsely accused by fellow soldiers and targeted over his medals. The civil court’s finding was on the balance of probabilities; criminal charges must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Under Australian law, a war crime murder is the intentional killing in armed conflict of someone not taking part in hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war or a wounded soldier. More than 39,000 Australian personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021; 41 were killed during the mission.
Edited by: Rana Taha