Once hailed as a national hero with the Victoria Cross, Ben Roberts-Smith faces five counts of war crime murder in a case that has reignited debate over accountability for foreign forces in the Afghan conflict.
A former elite Australian soldier, widely identified as Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living veteran, was arrested on Tuesday at Sydney Airport and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder.
The allegations relate to the intentional killing of five unarmed Afghan civilians and detainees between 2009 and 2012 during his service with the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) in Afghanistan.
Australian Federal Police (AFP), in coordination with the Office of the Special Investigator, made the arrest as the 47-year-old arrived on a domestic flight from Brisbane. He spent the night in custody and appeared briefly in court on Wednesday without applying for bail, remaining detained ahead of further proceedings. The maximum penalty for each charge is life imprisonment.
A shift from decorated service to criminal prosecution:
Roberts-Smith, a former SAS corporal, received the Victoria Cross for Australia-the country’s highest military honour-along with the Medal of Gallantry for actions in Afghanistan. He left the Australian Defence Force in 2013.
The charges mark a dramatic turn for a figure once celebrated as a symbol of Australian military prowess. They stem from a lengthy investigation into alleged misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan, following explosive media reports in 2018 and the landmark Brereton inquiry, which documented credible evidence of unlawful killings by Australian troops.
In a 2023 Federal Court defamation case brought by Roberts-Smith against several media outlets, a judge found on the balance of probabilities that he had committed or was complicit in several unlawful killings of unarmed Afghans, including incidents involving detainees and civilians. His appeal to Australia’s High Court was dismissed in 2025.
Police have not officially named the arrested man, but multiple media reports and court records have identified him as Roberts-Smith. The AFP described the charges as involving the murder of “unarmed detainees” and others not taking part in hostilities.
What’s the bigger picture behind Australia’s war crimes investigations?
This is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to face war crimes charges. In 2023, another former SAS soldier, Oliver Schulz, was charged with the war crime of murder over the alleged shooting of an unarmed Afghan man, Dad Mohammad, in a wheat field in Uruzgan province in 2012. Schulz has pleaded not guilty and is committed to stand trial.
The cases form part of a broader reckoning. The Office of the Special Investigator continues to probe more than a dozen other incidents, with Australian authorities estimating that dozens of Afghan civilians may have been unlawfully killed by special forces personnel.
Critics, including human rights groups such as Amnesty International, have welcomed the arrest as a “critical step toward justice and accountability” for alleged violations during the 20-year NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. Many Afghans and international observers have long questioned whether Western forces adequately investigated civilian casualties.
Supporters of Roberts-Smith, including some political figures and veterans, argue that the cases risk criminalising soldiers operating in extremely difficult combat environments, where split-second decisions were made under intense pressure. Some have questioned the cost and focus of the investigations, estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Roberts-Smith has consistently denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that his actions were lawful in the context of combat operations.