On Tuesday, April 7th, 2026, Ben Roberts-Smith was arrested at Sydney Airport. Police state he will be charged with five war crime murders related to the killings of unarmed Afghan civilians between 2009 and 2012. Each of these accusations, if proven, could lead to a life sentence.
Arrest and Charges
The Australian Federal Police say the man accused is a 47-year-old who used to be in the Australian Defence Force. He is scheduled to go before a local court in New South Wales later that same Tuesday.
Krissy Barrett, the Commissioner of the AFP, said investigators will claim the people who died weren’t actively fighting at the time. They were supposedly held by ADF soldiers, weren’t armed, and were under their control when they were killed.
Police also say the victims were shot either by Roberts-Smith or by soldiers who were following his orders and were with him. The prosecution is preparing five charges of war crimes murder, covering incidents from several different operations.
Allegations Outlined by Investigators
Australian authorities expect to have former members of the Special Air Service Regiment give statements. They helped with a five-year investigation. Investigators are getting ready to claim Roberts-Smith personally killed, or ordered the killing of, many prisoners.
Reports in the news have previously given details of the accusations. These include Roberts-Smith supposedly kicking an Afghan man who was tied up off a cliff in relying on witness statements, records from the missions, and other evidence that supports the stories. This is similar to how other international investigations into war crimes are handled when investigators aren’t allowed to go to the places where the fighting happened.
Ben Roberts-Smith was born in Western Australia and joined the Australian Regular Army in 1996. After initially serving with the Royal Australian Regiment, he passed the SAS selection process in 2003 and was sent on many missions abroad.
From Hero to Defendant
He received the Medal for Gallantry for what he did in Afghanistan in 2006 and later was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in the Australian military. He left the army in 2013, got an MBA, and began working in leadership positions, including jobs in the media.
Roberts-Smith is legally considered innocent at this point. The prosecution will explain the charges in court, and his lawyers will respond. A guilty verdict would mean a life sentence, while being found not guilty would mean the criminal accusations are dropped.
Officials have stressed the larger push for responsibility. They said if the evidence shows others should be charged, they will be. This case will show how Australia will deal with accusations of war crimes that took place a long time ago, and far from Australia.
A Wider War Crimes Investigation
2011 and then having him killed, and shooting a prisoner who had an artificial leg during a mission in 2009.
Other accusations involve telling someone to kill another prisoner in the same 2009 operation and ordering a lower-ranking soldier to kill an unarmed prisoner in 2012 – something that was supposedly called “blooding”. Roberts-Smith has always said he has done nothing wrong.
Evidence Challenges in Afghanistan Cases
Roberts-Smith became well-known to the country for his actions during his six times serving in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2012. He got the Victoria Cross and other awards for being brave and a strong leader in battle.
From 2018 onward, the Australian media published stories accusing him of unlawfully killing people and being unkind to other soldiers. He sued for defamation (damaging his good name) but lost in 2023 when a Federal Court judge said, using a civil court’s standard of proof, that four accusations of murder were mostly true.
Who Is Ben Roberts-Smith?
He appealed this decision, but the High Court rejected his appeal in September 2025. These decisions didn’t decide if he was criminally guilty. Now, the charges have to be proven without any reasonable doubt – which is a higher standard than in a civil case.
The Office of the Special Investigator, created to look into accusations of war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, has been working with the AFP since 2021. The OSI-AFP group started 53 investigations, and 10 are still happening.
What Happens Next
Another former special forces soldier will go on trial for war crime murder next February. Officials have said more charges could be added if the evidence supports them.
Ross Barnett, the OSI’s director of investigations, said the process is difficult because they can’t get into Afghanistan. Investigators don’t have typical crime scenes, photos, maps of the area, or forensic evidence like bullets or blood patterns.
