Hanson ‘steadfast’ in support for accused murderer Roberts-Smith
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More news: One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson says she remains “steadfast in my support” for accused murderer Ben Roberts-Smith, while former prime minister Tony Abbott says his “instinctive sympathy remains” with Australian soldiers.
In an X post on Tuesday, Hanson said she would “not abandon [Roberts-Smith] like so many other politicians”.
Roberts-Smith, who is expected to be charged on Tuesday afternoon, was arrested earlier that morning at Sydney Airport.
“Ben, his immediate and broader defence family need the Australian people’s support right now and I will not abandon him like so many other politicians,” she wrote.
“Ben was disgracefully arrested in front of his twin 15-year-old girls.”
Abbott questioned why Roberts-Smith, if he had “transgressed”, had not been picked up by more senior officers before he was granted medals for gallantry.
Police have conducted painstaking investigations into alleged murders carried out by Australia’s elite special forces but have been hampered by the time elapsed between the incidents — meaning crime scene and DNA evidence has not been available to them.
Despite this, Abbott argued former SAS soldiers should not be “in limbo years later” and claimed some had been “subjected to a form of persecution by the country they served”.
“[My] instinctive sympathy remains with all of our special forces soldiers … Of course, there are rules that have to be observed and enforced, even against soldiers in times of war,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Still, it’s wrong to judge the actions of men in mortal combat by the standards of ordinary civilian life.”
Like Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor declined to be drawn, saying the legal process “needs to take its course”.
“The vast majority of our special forces do the right thing,” Taylor told reporters.
What they said: “I remain steadfast in my support of Ben Roberts-Smith despite news of his arrest today,” Hanson wrote.
Greens say Roberts-Smith arrest shows ‘cost of war on all sides’, want ADF seniors scrutinised
The news: Greens Senator David Shoebridge said the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith “highlights the appalling cost of war on all sides”. He is pushing for more scrutiny on senior Defence figures.
The context: In a statement on Tuesday, Shoebridge said the arrest was a moment to remember the “remember the human cost of war” amid US-Israeli assaults on Iran and reprisals from Tehran.
Shoebridge said the charges, laid nearly 17 years after the first alleged murder Roberts-Smith is charged with, showed victims and survivors had waited “far too long” for justice.
“This is a moment of accountability and highlights the appalling cost of war on all sides. No one should be above the law,” Shoebridge said.
“Deployments of troops in overseas conflicts always come at enormous cost to people on the ground who face the horror and brutality of war.”
Shoebridge also called for closer scrutiny on senior ADF figures who the 2020 Brereton report found were morally, though not criminally, responsible for alleged murders committed under their watch.
“From the Brereton report onwards there has been a gaping hole in the accountability for what happened in Afghanistan, with the only legal repercussions being directed against non-commissioned troops,” he said.
Under international law, commanders who knew about — or should reasonably have known about — war crimes committed by their subordinates are criminally responsible.
What they said: “From the Brereton report onwards there has been a gaping hole in the accountability for what happened in Afghanistan, with the only legal repercussions being directed against non-commissioned troops,” he said.
“Gold braid on your shoulder is not meant to be legal protection from complicity in war crimes.”
Ben Roberts-Smith arrested, set to face war crimes charges
The news: Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith is expected to be charged with five war crime murders spanning three years.
The context: Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated soldier, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning after a five-year investigation into murders he allegedly carried out in Afghanistan.
The joint Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) allege Roberts-Smith murdered, or ordered the murder, of Afghan non-combatants or detainees between 2009 and 2012.
OSI director of investigations Ross Barnett said Roberts-Smith’s arrest was a “significant step”, but he stressed the former SAS soldier was entitled to the presumption of innocence.
“If the evidence leads to other people needing to be charged, you can be assured that will happen,” he said.
The first two charges relate to a 2009 operation at a compound dubbed ‘Whisky 108’, where Roberts-Smith allegedly murdered a prisoner and then ordered another soldier to murder a second.
A 2023 SBS investigation revealed the two men were a father and son, Mohammed Essa and Ahmadullah. SAS soldiers took the latter’s prosthetic leg and used it as a drinking vessel at an army bar.
Another charge relates to the alleged 2012 murder of Afghan villager Ali Jan, a bound prisoner who Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked off a cliff before ordering his murder at the hands of a junior soldier.
A landmark defamation ruling in 2023 found that, on the balance of probabilities, Roberts-Smith was responsible for the three murders.
Two other war crime murder charges have been laid over the killing of two other Afghans in 2012 in Syahchow. Roberts-Smith is accused of carrying out one himself, and “aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring” another person to carry out the other.
He has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing. He failed in a bid to have the defamation verdict overturned in the High Court.
The OSI was established in 2020, after an inquiry into alleged war crimes carried out by Australia’s elite soldiers — culminating in the Brereton Report — concluding there was credible evidence of 39 murders.
Roberts-Smith is expected to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon. He will be the second Australian charged with war crimes after former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz was in 2023 charged with the 2012 murder of an unarmed Afghan villager.
What they said: “The alleged conduct related to these charges is confined to a very small section of our trusted and respected ADF which keeps our country safe,” AFP commissioner Krissy Barrett told journalists on Tuesday.
Speaking soon after the charges were laid, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declined to comment for fear of jeopardising an ongoing legal proceeding.
The sources: AFP-OSI press conference, SBS News, David Shoebridge statement, Pauline Hanson X post, Tony Abbott Facebook post
