Judge in Defamation Case Rules Against Aussie 'Hero' Accused of War Crimes in Afghanistan

following the ruling."Today is a day of some small justice for the Afghan victims of Ben Roberts-Smith."

"Ali Jan was a father, Ali Jan was a husband. He has children who no longer have a father. He was a wife who no longer has a husband," McKenzie said. In 2009, Roberts-Smith is alleged to have pressured a newly deployed soldier to execute an elderly Afghan man found hiding in a tunnel in order to"blood the rookie," according to the court. Roberts-Smith machine-gunned the man's younger disabled companion to death and then took his prosthetic leg back to Australia, where he encouraged fellow soldiers to drink beer from it, an act the court called"callous and inhumane.

"Defamation losses have a chilling effect for the media, particularly for serious investigative journalism," he added."This decision should give media outlets some confidence that they can undertake public-interest journalism and prevail."

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Decorated Australian war veteran unlawfully killed prisoners in Afghanistan, judge saysA judge in a civil case says a decorated Australian veteran unlawfully killed prisoners and committed other war crimes in Afghanistan. The judge dismissed claims by Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith that he was defamed by media who published articles about the allegations in 2018. The proven allegations included that Roberts-Smith killed a prisoner who had a prosthetic leg, which he kept as a drinking vessel. The court also concluded Roberts-Smith had kicked a man off a cliff into a riverbed where an SAS colleague shot him to death in 2012. Roberts-Smith has denied wrongdoing. Several Australian military personnel are under investigation for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
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