MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st June, 2023) Australian army veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has lost his defamation case against three newspapers which accused him of committing war crimes in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, media reported on Thursday.
In 2018, the Victoria Cross recipient sued Australian newspapers The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for their reports which claimed that Roberts-Smith had killed six civilians in Afghanistan, given orders to execute people in custody, as well as accused him of bullying his fellow officers and committing domestic abuse. Roberts-Smith rejected the accusations.
Judge Anthony Besanko in his verdict said that the media outlets had managed to prove most of their claims and dismissed the case, the Australian 7News broadcaster reported.
The judge, in particular, found that the newspapers had provided "substantial" evidence on the killing of two unarmed men at the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) base by Roberts-Smith in 2009. However, allegations of committing acts of violence against a woman he was having an affair with were found unproven.
During the defamation proceeding, which lasted for almost five years, over 40 witnesses gave their testimony producing over 6,000 pages of records, according to the report.
