VC hero in war crime probe
Australia’s most highly decorated former SAS soldier, Ben RobertsSmith, is being investigated by the Australian Federal Police for allegedly kicking a handcuffed detainee off a small cliff in an Afghan village in 2012.
Multiple serving and former defence sources in Australia and Afghanistan have confirmed that Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross winner, is the subject of the AFP inquiry into the brutalisation of Afghan farmer and father Ali Jan after he was taken into custody by the SAS on September 11 that year.
On Friday, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reported that federal police detectives had travelled earlier this year to Afghanistan and gathered eyewitness testimony from people in and around the village of Darwan that implicates Australian special forces soldiers in the alleged brutal assault and murder.
SAS personnel and support staff have also given eyewitness statements to federal police agents about the treatment of Ali Jan or the operation in which he was killed, according to defence sources who cannot be named because they are not authorised to speak publicly. Under international law, detainees must be treated humanely and be protected from any act of violence.
The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes can now reveal that Roberts-Smith is facing an accusation that he picked a handcuffed Ali Jan out of a group of detainees and then led him to the edge of a small cliff, after which he kicked him off. Another soldier is suspected of shooting dead the injured detainee a short time later, the sources said.
In addition to the AFP, the military Inspector-General is separately investigating Ali Jan’s treatment as an alleged war crime and also dispatched investigators to Afghanistan.
Roberts-Smith denies all wrongdoing and has initiated defamation proceedings against Nine, publisher of this article, which in 2018 first reported allegations that Roberts-Smith was implicated in war crimes. He was approached for comment.
The family of Ali Jan has issued a call for justice, urging the Australian government to fully investigate the assault and death of a man they say was an innocent detainee.
Ali Jan’s wife, Bibi Dhorko, said: ‘‘I want justice because I have been widowed ... my children are now helpless.’’ She said Ali Jan was a family man and a farmer with no involvement in the violence in the badlands of Southern Afghanistan.
‘‘He didn’t side with anyone and never had a gun. He was living in the mountain and doing his work, only going occasionally to the village if we needed any supplies.’’
He was one of around fifty male villagers from Darwan who was arrested by the SAS during a sweep through the small village as they searched for rogue Afghan army sergeant Hekmatullah, who weeks earlier had murdered three Australian soldiers.
Prominent MP Andrew Hastie, a former SAS Captain and Afghan veteran, along with two SAS insiders, called on the Australian public to back the work of the defence force InspectorGeneral who is investigating alleged war crimes.
The revelation of the AFP trip to Afghanistan comes after ABC reports that the defence force Inspector-General sent Supreme Court of Appeal judge Paul Brereton and investigators to Kabul to also gather evidence about events at Darwan.
While not commenting on any specific allegations, Hastie said the Brereton inquiry was only focusing on serious incidents – such as alleged summary executions of prisoners – and not ‘‘fog of war’’ incidents, as claimed by critics of the inquiry. – Nine