TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Australian Federal Police announced the arrest of a 47-year-old former Australian soldier, who was widely reported in local media as the recipient of the Victoria Cross, Ben Roberts-Smith.
Commissioner Krissy Barrett of the federal police said the soldier has been linked to a series of killings while serving in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
"The victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan," she told journalists on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, as reported by France24.
"It will be alleged the victims were shot by the accused, or shot by subordinate members acting on the orders of the accused."
He would be charged with five counts of "war crimes—murder," she said.
Roberts-Smith was a former member of the Special Air Service Regiment, and widely regarded as Australia's most prominent living war hero before his reputation was tarnished in 2018.
At that time, a series of newspaper reports first linked him to the killings of unarmed Afghan prisoners by Australian soldiers.
These reports eventually prompted an ongoing police investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Australian soldiers.
Roberts-Smith has consistently maintained his innocence, launching multi-million-dollar legal action against the newspaper that first reported the allegations.
War Crimes Allegations
Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross—Australia's highest military honor—for "conspicuous gallantry" in Afghanistan while pursuing a senior Taliban commander.
He met Queen Elizabeth II and his portrait was hung in the hallowed hall of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
However, after in-depth investigations, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald accused that his public image concealed a pattern of criminal and immoral behavior.
The newspapers alleged that Roberts-Smith had kicked an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered his subordinates to shoot him.
He was also said to have been involved in shooting a man with a prosthetic leg using a machine gun, and later used the prosthetic leg as a drinking vessel along with his colleagues.
Australia deployed 39,000 troops to Afghanistan over two decades as part of operations led by the US and NATO against the Taliban and other militant groups.
As Australian veterans returned home, their actions have come under legal scrutiny.
A military investigation in 2020 found that special forces personnel had "unlawfully killed" 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners, uncovering allegations of extrajudicial execution, competition killings, and torture by Australian forces.
Amid growing pressure, the Australian government appointed a special investigator to probe whether serving and former soldiers should face criminal charges.
Read: Iran Says US-Israel Strike on India-Bound Plane a 'War Crime'
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