{"id":19257,"date":"2026-04-19T17:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/australian-soldier-charged-with-war-crimes-vows-to-clear-his-name\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:51:23","slug":"australian-soldier-charged-with-war-crimes-vows-to-clear-his-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/australian-soldier-charged-with-war-crimes-vows-to-clear-his-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian soldier charged with war crimes vows to clear his name"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Australian former soldier charged with committing war crimes in Afghanistan vowed on Sunday to clear his name, saying he had never “run from a fight” in his first public comments since his arrest.<\/p>\n

“For the past 10 years, my family and I have been subject to a campaign to convince Australians that I’ve acted improperly in my service in Afghanistan,” Ben Roberts-Smith told journalists in Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

“I categorically deny all of these allegations, and while I would have preferred these charges not be brought, I will be taking this opportunity to finally clear my name,” he said.<\/p>\n

Roberts-Smith was granted bail on Friday after a high-profile arrest on five counts of “war crime — murder”. Police alleged he was complicit in a string of unlawful killings between 2009 and 2012.<\/p>\n

The Victoria Cross recipient has denied all the charges. He was released from prison on Friday evening after 10 days behind bars.<\/p>\n

“I’m proud of my service in Afghanistan. While I was there, I always acted within my values,” he said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Australia’s most decorated living soldier met Queen Elizabeth II, had his portrait hung at the Australian War Museum and was even honored as the nation’s “father of the year”.<\/p>\n

But the war hero’s reputation was called into question in 2018, when a series of news reports linked him to the alleged murder of unarmed Afghan prisoners by Australian troops.<\/p>\n

The soldier allegedly kicked an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered subordinates to shoot him, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reported.<\/p>\n

He was also said to have taken part in the machine-gunning of a man with a prosthetic limb which he later used as a drinking vessel with other soldiers.<\/p>\n

Roberts-Smith has staunchly maintained his innocence throughout, launching legal action against the newspapers who aired the allegations.<\/p>\n

But his efforts to sue The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald for slander would backfire, with a judge finding in 2023 many of the journalists’ claims were “substantially true”.<\/p>\n

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Such civil trials carry a lower burden of proof than the criminal proceedings Roberts-Smith now faces.<\/p>\n

Australia deployed 39,000 troops to Afghanistan over two decades as part of U.S.- and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and other militant groups.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t© 2026 AFP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Australian soldier charged with war crimes vows to clear his name<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Australian former soldier charged with committing war crimes in Afghanistan vowed on Sunday to clear his name, saying he had never “run from a fight” in his first public comments since his arrest. “For the past 10 years, my family and I have been subject to a campaign to convince Australians that I’ve acted…<\/p>\n

Read More “Australian soldier charged with war crimes vows to clear his name”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}