Media company Nine, which is facing defamation claims from Ben Roberts-Smith over articles accusing him of war crimes, has asked the court to set aside two subpoenas from the decorated veteran related to a woman who has accused him of domestic violence, arguing the subpoenas act as a substitute for discovery.
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 admitted that he owns a glass replica of the prosthetic leg belonging to a man he killed in Afghanistan, as trial in his defamation case entered its third week.
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.
Accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith has told a court it was “more than reasonable” for him to assume an unarmed Afghan man was a hostile insurgent because he saw another soldier shoot at the man first.