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April 8, 2026 — 5:00am
The wheels of justice are famously slow to turn, but even by their standards, 17 years is a long time to wait.
That’s how long it has been since Australian soldiers stormed the Whiskey 108 compound in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province on Easter Sunday, 2009, where they allegedly left two subdued and unarmed Afghan men dead in their wake.
Three SAS witnesses claim that on that day they saw Ben Roberts-Smith, who would later become Australia’s most decorated soldier, machine-gun one of those men in the back. Another soldier then removed the slain man’s prosthetic leg and took it as a trophy to a makeshift bar. There, soldiers drank beer from the prosthetic, while others, including Roberts-Smith, grinned as they posed for photos with the limb.
This was the earliest of the alleged murders over which Roberts-Smith has now been charged. Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters first reported on it for the Herald in 2018.
The family and friends of the man machine-gunned allegedly in cold blood have not seen anyone brought to justice for his killing. Nor have the families of the second man killed at Whiskey 108 when, according to witness testimony given under oath during a civil trial, Roberts-Smith ordered a rookie soldier to execute him in a so-called blooding ritual.
Similarly, no one has faced a criminal trial over the death of Ali Jan, an Afghan villager whom Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked off a cliff, before the Afghan was allegedly executed on Roberts-Smith’s order.
“I want justice because I have been widowed … my children are now helpless,” Ali Jan’s widow Bibi Dhorko told this masthead during an interview in a Kabul hotel room in 2019. She sat alongside three of the seven children left fatherless after the 2011 incident in the village of Darwan over which Roberts-Smith has now been charged.
While these families suffered, Roberts-Smith remained free and feted by high society. Australia’s governor-general pinned to his chest the Victoria Cross, an honour shared by only three other veterans of the Afghan War. He was dubbed father of the year. He mixed with politicians. He was appointed to a coveted senior position with the Seven Network, the company of his chief backer Kerry Stokes. He breathed rarefied air alongside royalty at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
His life of esteem continued despite allegations of the utmost gravity following his every step. He was, and in some circles still is, revered as a hero.
The accusations against Roberts-Smith have been tested in court before, to a civil standard of proof, when a judge determined that, on the balance of probabilities, he committed the war crime of murder when he killed innocent people while serving in Afghanistan. He has consistently denied the allegations.
Justice Anthony Besanko made the findings against Roberts-Smith in 2023 when he rejected the ex-soldier’s claim that the Herald defamed him when it reported accusations of war crimes against him. On the day of Besanko’s judgment, Roberts-Smith holidayed in Bali. The journalists responsible for bringing the allegations to light, McKenzie and Masters, looked the judge in the eye as he gave his judgment.
Roberts-Smith appealed, but it was dismissed by three Federal Court judges. The High Court refused his application for a further appeal. He was ordered to pay the costs of this masthead and its co-defendants.
During the case, SAS and Afghan witnesses gave evidence about the actions of Roberts-Smith. The fact that his SAS comrades were willing to break from a longstanding culture of secrecy spoke volumes about their commitment to the truth. Anyone questioning the impact of this saga on the reputation of Australia’s Defence personnel need only reflect on the courage of those witnesses to restore their faith in the character of our soldiers. Still, allegations of war crimes prompted something of a cultural reckoning within the armed forces.
An exhaustive inquiry by Justice Paul Brereton, released in 2020, found credible evidence of 23 incidents where one or more non-combatants were unlawfully killed by, or at the direction of, Australian special forces soldiers. That amounted to as many as 39 murders, the report found. In response, the Morrison government set up the Office of the Special Investigator to probe these serious allegations.
Government and Defence action, sadly, did not become the standard for some institutions, which should now reflect on their conduct.
They include those in parts of the media who, for their own reasons, supported an accused war criminal. They did so despite their peers’ meticulous reporting on these war crimes and despite the Federal Court finding that, on the balance of probabilities, this reporting was substantially true. This was not journalism guided by fact. It was cheerleading for someone hell-bent on vengeance against outlets which happened to be their competitors. Australian audiences deserve better.
To his eternal shame, billionaire Kerry Stokes bankrolled Roberts-Smith’s defence. Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has also thrown her public support behind the disgraced former soldier who is now charged with five alleged war crime-murders.
Leaders of the Australian War Memorial must surely revisit its prominent display celebrating the achievements of a man now charged with murder. A plaque acknowledging civil trial findings that Roberts-Smith was “complicit in unlawful killings”, added after the defamation trial, also notes that he “has not been charged with any offence under criminal law”. It should have been removed long ago.
The fact that the exhibit remains in place is an insult to the alleged victims and to the aforementioned soldiers who gave evidence in the defamation case, whom the memorial is also supposed to honour. At the very least, the War Memorial should throw a dark sheet over the sorry mess until the criminal trial is completed.
For the sake of Dhorko, her fatherless children, and the other alleged victims of Australian war crimes who deserve a conclusion to this saga, the allegations must now be thoroughly tested in court.
