Australian police have arrested Ben Roberts-Smith, the country’s most decorated living soldier, on war crimes charges.
Australian Federal Police said a man identified by local news outlets as Roberts-Smith had been charged with killing several unarmed civilians while deployed to Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
The former soldier was previously awarded Australia’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, for “conspicuous gallantry” during the 2010 battle against Taliban fighters in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Five counts of war crimes
Roberts-Smith was first linked to the killing of unarmed Afghan prisoners by Australian soldiers in a series of newspaper articles in 2018.
In 2023 he lost a defamation case against the newspapers after a federal court judge found some of the alleged murders proven. His final appeal was rejected by the High Court in September 2025.
The reporting also triggered a criminal investigation. The 47-year-old man was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning and charged with five counts of war crimes.
“It will be alleged that the victims were not taking part in hostilities in Afghanistan at the time of their alleged killing,” Federal Police Commissioner Chrissie Barrett told a news conference.
“It will be alleged that the victims were detained, unarmed and under the control of [Australian Defense Force] members when they were killed.”
The allegations also include that Roberts-Smith shot and killed an unarmed Afghan teenager and forced a handcuffed detainee down a cliff before shooting him.
He is also accused of assisting or directing others to intentionally kill people on three separate occasions.
Allegations of war crimes by Australian Defense Forces in Afghanistan investigated
Australia has deployed 39,000 troops to Afghanistan over two decades as part of US and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and other terrorist groups.
A joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police and the Office of Special Investigators into alleged war crimes by some soldiers during deployment to Afghanistan was launched in 2021.
Roberts-Smith’s case is one of 53 investigations, of which 10 are ongoing.
“If the evidence shows that other people need to be charged, you can be assured that that will happen,” said Ross Barnett, director of the Office of Special Investigators.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher