April 9, 2026

One of the most significant moments in Australian military history unfolded without fanfare on a tarmac at Sydney airport, when Ben Roberts-Smith was calmly escorted off a plane and into a waiting police car.

The country’s most-decorated living soldier and the most famous of his generation, Roberts-Smith was on Tuesday charged with five counts of the war crime of murder.

It follows a high-profile civil defamation case, which three years ago found that the former Special Air Service (SAS) corporal and Victoria Cross recipient had unlawfully killed several unarmed Afghan detainees.

 

A shock moment in Australian military history: Ben Roberts-Smith, the nation’s most decorated living soldier and a Victoria Cross recipient, was quietly marched off a plane at Sydney airport and into a police car, then charged with five counts of war crime murder. The once-celebrated SAS corporal now faces the criminal test after a blistering civil ruling found he unlawfully killed Afghan detainees — allegations he denies as malicious. The case is exploding beyond one man, striking at Australia’s war legacy and forcing a hard reckoning over what happened in Afghanistan.

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