Australian soldiers who raided a village in Afghanistan were “infidels” and the people they killed were “martyrs”, an Afghan villager related to a man allegedly murdered by veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has told a court.
A communications device was planted on an unarmed Afghan villager who was allegedly murdered by former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, a court overseeing the accused war criminal’s defamation trial has heard.
Canberra has been floated as a potential new venue for the trial in former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation case as Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak worsens, but a judge has said moving the hearing created “real difficulties”.
Four witnesses who allegedly saw Ben Roberts-Smith kick a handcuffed man off a cliff in Afghanistan will give evidence next week in the war veteran’s defamation trial, which has been disrupted by COVID-19 restrictions in NSW.
Trial in the defamation case by war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith against Nine may face additional delays or be transferred out of Sydney after the NSW Government extended the city’s COVID-19 restrictions by two weeks.
Trial in the defamation case by accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith has been adjourned for three weeks after COVID-19 restrictions prevented witnesses from travelling to Sydney and national security concerns were raised regarding Afghani witnesses set to give evidence.
Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has denied claims that he assaulted a woman with whom he was having an affair and took naked photos of her while she was unconscious after attending a Parliament House function in March 2018.
Ben Roberts-Smith has told a court that he exchanged emails with SAS witnesses about a compound where he was alleged to have murdered a man with a prosthetic leg in the lead-up to his defamation trial.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has denied allegations that he sent off threatening letters to a former SAS colleague to stop him from talking to the media and a defence inquiry into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
Ben Roberts-Smith has been accused of “inventing stories” to conceal facts that would support publisher Fairfax’s version of events concerning war crimes allegedly committed by the former SAS soldier in Afghanistan.