Australian Federal Police (AFP) detectives have arrived in Afghanistan and gathered an eyewitness testimony as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged war crime committed by Australian special forces servicemen in 2012, The Age media outlet reported on
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2019) Australian Federal Police (AFP) detectives have arrived in Afghanistan and gathered an eyewitness testimony as part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged war crime committed by Australian special forces servicemen in 2012, The Age media outlet reported on Friday.
The AFP received a referral to investigate the alleged war crimes in June 2018.
According to the media outlet, the servicemen have been implicated in the brutal assault and murder of Ali Jan, an Afghan farmer, who was detained and allegedly kicked off a cliff and later found shot dead in Afghanistan's central province of Urozgan in September 2012.
This is the first time the AFP has ever deployed agents overseas to investigate alleged war crimes, the outlet added.
The police investigation is being conducted by the AFP's Offshore and Sensitive Investigation taskforce.
According to reports, Ali Jan was detained during a sweep conducted by the Australian special forces patrol team in the village of Darwan as they were searching for a rogue Afghan army sergeant who had weeks earlier murdered three Australian soldiers. Ali Jan was detained with around fifty other villagers. However, the rogue sergeant was not captured until 2013.
