Category Archives: Ben Roberts-Smith

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation appeal: news companies argue ex-SAS corporal’s case ‘fundamentally flawed’

Posted on by

Roberts-Smith, 45, is seeking to overturn June defamation trial judgment that found he engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan

News companies defending a defamation appeal launched by Ben Roberts-Smith over reports he engaged in war crimes in Afghanistan have told a court the ex-SAS corporal’s case is “fundamentally flawed”.

The appeal by Roberts-Smith, 45, seeks to overturn his June defamation loss against Nine newspapers and the Canberra Times over 2018 reports on war crimes during the Victoria Cross-recipient’s Afghanistan deployments.

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith: judge won’t make documents decision in war crimes probe due to bias perception

Posted on by

Justice Anthony Besanko recuses himself from court decision relating to war crimes investigation into Australian veteran

The judge who dismissed Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation action will not decide whether criminal investigators probing war crimes allegations against the decorated veteran should have access to sensitive information heard in closed court during the defamation trial.

Justice Anthony Besanko has recused himself from deciding whether investigators from the government’s Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) should be allowed to access information tendered in closed court, over concerns of a potential perception of bias.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith to appeal after defamation case was dismissed by federal court

Posted on by

Ex-soldier lost case against three newspapers in June with trial judge finding they had proven on the balance of probabilities that Roberts-Smith murdered unarmed civilians in Afghanistan

Ben Roberts-Smith has launched an appeal after he lost his war crimes defamation trial in the federal court.

Justice Anthony Besanko found in June that three newspapers had proven Roberts-Smith had, on the balance of probabilities, murdered unarmed civilians while serving in the Australian military in Afghanistan.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australian federal police abandon two alleged murder investigations into Ben Roberts-Smith

Posted on by

The long-running investigations into murder allegations in Afghanistan will be replaced by new inquiries because of concerns about evidence

Two key criminal investigations into alleged murders involving Ben Roberts-Smith have been abandoned by the Australian federal police because of concerns over potentially inadmissible evidence.

The long-running investigations – into murder allegations at a compound codenamed Whiskey 108 and in the southern Afghan village of Darwan – will be replaced by new inquiries undertaken by a new joint taskforce, staffed by officials from the Office of the Special Investigator and federal police investigators not previously connected to the cases.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: economists push interest rate forecasts higher; teens arrested over violent carjacking

Posted on by

Eight teenagers in police custody after allegedly dragging woman from car on the Gold Coast. Follow the day’s news live

Business groups argue ‘same job, same pay’ laws would disadvantage workers

I mentioned a little earlier that business groups have glommed together to launch a campaign against the federal government’s proposed “same job, same pay” industrial relations laws.

The so-called ‘Same Job, Same Pay’ proposals does not mean equal pay for men and women. It does not speak of fairness and justice, as its name falsely represents.

It means by law, employers will have to pay workers with little knowledge or experience exactly the same as workers with decades of knowledge and experience.

Without a real threat of losing passengers to other airlines, the Qantas and Virgin Australia airline groups have had less incentive to offer attractive airfares, develop more direct routes, operate more reliable services, and invest in systems to provide high levels of customer service.

Continue reading...

Australian government considers compensation for Afghanistan war crime victims

Posted on by

Human rights and legal groups have stepped up their calls for a compensation plan in the wake of the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation ruling

The Australian government is looking for “a way forward” to compensate families of victims of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, the defence minister has told legal advocates.

But officials continue to warn about the complexity of the compensation issue, one of the key outstanding recommendations from the landmark Brereton inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces soldiers.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith has been dealt a crushing blow. The full fallout is yet to come

Posted on by

Australia’s most decorated living soldier has had his defamation case dismissed, but questions remain over his future

The 1,800 words of Justice Anthony Besanko’s summary judgment were quietly devastating.

Delivered in less than 20 minutes, the judge’s decision would see Ben Roberts-Smith VC lose what remained of his reputation, his job, and possibly his willingness to live in a country where he was once revered.

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith: calls for uniform to be removed from Australian War Memorial display

Posted on by

Greens say removal would be ‘first step in correcting the official record’ after federal court dismisses defamation case

The Australian War Memorial is facing calls to remove Ben Roberts-Smith’s uniform from its display, after the federal court dismissed the defamation case initiated by Australia’s most decorated living soldier.

But the Australian Special Air Service Association has argued it was “a very disappointing day” for veterans who had served in Afghanistan, saying the majority who had done the right thing were being “re-traumatised after having gone through a difficult war”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation loss bad news for Seven boss as Nine marks ‘day of justice’

Posted on by

Seven chairman Kerry Stokes, who parachuted the former soldier into a network job in 2015, says ‘the judgment does not accord with the man I know’

For Seven’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, the verdict in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial was all bad news.

The cost of the trial is estimated to be between $25m and $35m and, with the billionaire media proprietor bankrolling the former soldier and Seven employee, Stokes’s legal tab will be significant if he does pick up the bill.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Key witness in Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial acted ‘like a drunken fool’ towards police, says magistrate

Posted on by

Federal police sought former soldier’s phone as part of investigation into war crimes potentially committed in Afghanistan

One of the key witnesses in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial has pleaded guilty to hindering a commonwealth official after he acted “like a drunken fool” in refusing to hand over his phone, wanted as part of a police war crimes investigation.

In April last year, Australian Federal Police sought the phone of the former soldier as part of a broader investigation into war crimes potentially committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith’s year-long defamation trial against three newspapers concludes

Posted on by

Ex-soldier’s barrister tells court that reporters ‘jumped on rumours’, while newspapers’ counsel alleges Roberts-Smith ‘prepared to lie under oath’

Ben Roberts-Smith’s long-running defamation case has concluded in Sydney, with his barrister telling the court the decorated former soldier was the victim of a “war of words” from jealous comrades intent on tearing down his reputation.

After more than 100 days of evidence, 42 witnesses from around the world, hundreds of exhibits, and thousands of pages of transcripts, the year-long trial ended with closing submissions from legal teams Wednesday morning.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Evidence of Afghan witnesses against Ben Roberts-Smith ‘hardly neutral’, lawyer tells court

Posted on by

Lawyers for Ben Roberts-Smith urge court to disregard evidence of Afghan witnesses, saying the men were prejudiced against Australian soldiers

Lawyers for Ben Roberts-Smith have urged the court hearing a defamation trial to reject the testimony of three Afghan men who gave evidence against the Australian soldier in his defamation trial, saying they regarded foreign troops as “infidels” and gave “inconsistent and contradictory” evidence.

“To say they are credible is incredible,” Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Arthur Moses SC, told the federal court in closing submissions in the former soldier’s long-running defamation action.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial hears Australian SAS soldiers ‘turned a blind eye’ to alleged war crimes

Posted on by

In closing submissions, newspapers’ lawyer accuses several of Roberts-Smith’s witnesses of ‘outright dishonesty’

A powerful omertà within Australia’s SAS caused soldiers to “turn a blind eye to the most despicable and egregious breaches of the laws of war”, Ben Roberts-Smith’s long-running defamation trial has heard.

On the second day of closing submissions, Nicholas Owens SC, acting for the newspapers being sued by Roberts-Smith, said witnesses, including those called by the newspapers, were reluctant to report alleged war crimes because of a “pervasive culture” that forced new soldiers in particular to “toe the line” of the regiment’s culture.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial hears conflicting evidence over Afghan deaths

Posted on by

Troops who were present at Whiskey 108 compound split over whether two men shot dead were murdered or were insurgents killed lawfully

The tunnel at Whiskey 108 – and whether there were any people hiding in it – continues to dominate and divide the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial, with an SAS soldier accusing a comrade of cowardice over a raid on the compound in the Afghan village of Kakarak.

At issue is whether two men killed in the compound in April 2009, were pulled from the tunnel and murdered by Australian troops, or were insurgents lawfully killed in a firefight.

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: witness expected to deny wrongdoing in killing of Afghan villager

Posted on by

Person 11 to give evidence on allegation by newspapers that Roberts-Smith kicked handcuffed man off cliff before ordering him shot

An Australian soldier alleged by three newspapers to have participated with Ben Roberts-Smith in the “joint criminal enterprise” of murdering an Afghan villager named Ali Jan is set to appear in the federal court this week as a witness for Roberts-Smith in his defamation action against the newspapers.

Anonymised before the court as Person 11, the SAS’s soldier evidence will be critical to Roberts-Smith’s case over the events in the village of Darwan on 11 September 2012, when Roberts-Smith is alleged, by the newspapers in their defence, to have kicked a handcuffed Ali Jan off a cliff before ordering him shot.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Witness agrees with Ben Roberts-Smith that no fighting-aged men were inside tunnel, court hears

Posted on by

Absence of people in tunnel key to Roberts-Smith’s claim in defamation action that alleged war crimes couldn’t have taken place

The soldier who discovered the infamous tunnel in Whiskey 108 says there were no fighting-aged males hiding inside, backing Ben Roberts-Smith’s version of events of a fiercely contested mission in Afghanistan, the federal court has heard.

Roberts-Smith’s fourth soldier witness, a still-serving warrant officer anonymised as Person 29, gave evidence on Wednesday about a 2009 SAS raid on a compound known as Whiskey 108 in the village of Kakarak – an insurgent redoubt in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Who shot the dog? The canine killing that could play a crucial role in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial

Posted on by

Identity of Afghan special forces member who killed stray dog could prove critical in newspapers’ defence

Amid allegations of war crimes, of murder, and of domestic violence, the seemingly inconsequential but bizarre death of a dog has dominated days of evidence in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial.

It has done so because the identity of an Afghan special forces member who shot the stray dog – accidentally injuring an Australian soldier – during an SAS mission in July 2012 could prove critical in an allegation of murder made against Roberts-Smith in the newspapers’ defence.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: police feared witness would destroy phone evidence

Posted on by

Former soldier appeared ‘intoxicated, acting in a belligerent manner’ when confronted with a search warrant, court documents say

Police feared one of Ben Roberts-Smith’s SAS witnesses in his defamation case was going to destroy evidence on his phone when they confronted him with a search warrant in a city hotel late on Tuesday night.

The former soldier, who hours earlier had finished giving evidence to the defamation trial, appeared “intoxicated, acting in a belligerent, unreasonable and aggressive manner”, court documents say.

Continue reading...

Seven paid legal fees for witness in Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial until arrangement was revealed in court

Posted on by

Request for reimbursement from Kerry Stokes’s private company not made until after court told of network’s legal financing

The Seven Network was paying the legal fees of several SAS witnesses for Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation trial until one of them revealed the payments in the federal court, contradicting Seven’s claim last week that the former soldier’s evidence about the source of the payments was “not correct”.

When the former SAS soldier, known as Person 5, told the court last week that his solicitor and barrister are being paid for by Seven, the network said another arm of the empire owned by Seven West Media chair, Kerry Stokes, was footing the bill.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: former patrol commander denies ordering execution of elderly prisoner

Posted on by

Ex-soldier known as Person 5 denies allegation put by lawyers acting for newspapers

Ben Roberts-Smith’s former patrol commander has denied in court accusations he ordered the execution of an elderly Afghan prisoner discovered hiding in a tunnel – in an alleged “blooding” of a junior soldier.

The retired soldier, anonymised before the court as Person 5, was directly challenged on Tuesday by lawyers for three newspapers being sued by Roberts-Smith: “You told [soldier] Person 4 to murder the old man.”

Continue reading...