Australia’s ‘Trial of the Century’ Stains Its Most Decorated Soldier

Australia has been grappling with the fallout of its 20-year mission in Afghanistan and the conduct of its elite special forces there. The country’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, sued three newspapers, accusing them of accusing him of killing unarmed Afghan prisoners in cold blood. On Thursday, a judge effectively found the answer to his claim of defamation was a yes. The ruling was a rare victory for news media in Australia, who face the country’s notoriously harsh defamation laws. The decision is expected to “bring war crimes into renewed focus,” according to David Rolph, a professor of media law at the University of Sydney.

The legal decision may now put pressure on investigating and prosecuting authorities to investigate and consider charges of war crimes. Australia’s military released a damning account of years of battlefield misconduct among its special forces in Afghanistan that included “credible evidence” that 25 soldiers were involved in the murders of 39 Afghans. A government agency was subsequently created to investigate war crimes committed in Afghanistan, and it has started to examine between 40 and 50 allegations of criminal behavior. In March, the authorities made the first-ever arrest of an Australian soldier in a case involving the war crime of murder, accusing him of killing an Afghan man.

While Mr. Roberts-Smith was not on trial in the case decided on Thursday, it was the first time a war crimes allegation had been examined in open court in Australia. Mr. Roberts-Smith, hailed as one of Australia’s most exemplary soldiers, received the country’s top two military honors and was named Australia’s Father of the Year in 2013. However, this all changed in 2018 when three newspapers published articles accusing him of murdering, or being complicit in the murders of six Afghans.

Lurid and bizarre details of Mr. Roberts-Smith also emerged during the trial, causing further damage to his public image. The case against him contained two centerpiece allegations: that in 2009, he killed one of two Afghan men who were discovered hiding in a tunnel at a compound, and that he had ordered a more junior soldier to kill the other as part of an initiation. Mr. Roberts-Smith was also accused of kicking an unarmed, handcuffed Afghan farmer off a cliff and then watching as a colleague killed the man. The newspapers had to prove it was more likely than not that Mr. Roberts-Smith committed war crimes, and the judge found that their accounts of the events, as well as the soldier’s complicity in another murder, were true. While the media hailed the verdict as a vindication of the journalists involved, Mr. Roberts-Smith’s lawyers say they are considering an appeal.