Multiple official sources,who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing,have toldThe Age andHerald Mr Roberts-Smith will face fresh war crimes inquiries in addition to ongoing federal police taskforces already probing him.
The sources confirmed that the federal police are investigating Mr Roberts-Smith over multiple eyewitness accounts from his fellow Special Air Service Regiment soldiers who allege he executed the unarmed Afghan militant wearing the leg in an operation in Kakarak,Southern Afghanistan,on Easter Sunday,2009. That alleged execution is the subject of a preliminary criminal brief recently submitted by the federal police to Commonwealth prosecutors.
Police are also investigating allegations,made by SASR insiders,that Mr Roberts-Smith and a second soldier pressured a junior trooper to execute a second Afghan found in the same Kakarak compound in a “blooding” incident. “Blooding” is the pressuring of junior soldiers to summarily execute prisoners. The practice was identified in theBrereton Inquiry report into allegations of war crimes by a small clique of Australian SAS soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Brereton report identified a “warrior culture” that allowed war crimes to be allegedly committed. Without naming any individual,the Brereton report found 25 special forces soldiers may have executed 39 Afghans and called on the federal police to launch multiple fresh inquiries.
It separately criticised the unruly or skylarking behaviour of some soldiers at the Fat Lady’s Arms.
The Brereton Inquiry intensively investigated Mr Roberts-Smith for three years,but his suspected role in multiple war crimes has only been publicly exposed by whistleblower accounts provided toThe Age andHerald.
A confidential AFP letter sent in late 2019 stated detectives had obtained “eyewitness” accounts implicating him in suspected war crimes. In addition to the Kakarak killings,the taskforces have also submitted a preliminary brief of evidence to prosecutors about allegations Mr Roberts-Smith kicked a prisoner named Ali Jan off a cliff in 2012.
The AFP letter was revealed in defamation proceedings that Mr Roberts-Smith has launched againstThe Age andHerald. Mr Roberts-Smith has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Hundreds of photos exist depicting dozens of soldiers and officers drinking from the boot and the selective leaking of a small number of them at the Fat Lady’s Arms toThe Guardian has partly shifted the focus onto whistleblowers or witnesses,and away from soldiers accused of actually executing prisoners.
TheGuardian story,written by freelance journalist Rory Callinan,included photos of two soldiers with faces blurred posing with the boot. The story claimed “rank-and-file” soldiers believe they have been unfairly criticised by the Brereton report and suggest that drinking from the boot could be classified as the war crime of pillaging because the leg was property taken without the consent of its owner.
The article did not mention the allegation the Afghan man wearing the leg had been allegedly executed,or that Mr Roberts-Smith was a police suspect.
More than a dozen defence sources said the two soldiers in the photos published by Mr Callinan and theGuardian were part of a group of suspected witnesses rumoured to be assisting the federal police war crimes taskforce. The sources said one of the two soldiers depicted inThe Guardian had,in 2017,disclosed his own role in removing and handling the leg. This was also not reported in theGuardian article.
Despite efforts to contact him,Mr Callinan could not be reached before deadline. Sources atThe Guardian said the British media giant was unaware the two soldiers depicted in the photos it published could be police witnesses.
There is no suggestion Mr Roberts-Smith provided the photos of the two soldiers turned suspected police witnesses or is connected to theGuardian reports. However,the former soldier is working with public relations firm Cato&Clive and public relations operative and former journalist Ross Coulthart.
The work of the two federal police taskforces will be reviewed and subsumed in coming weeks by the Office of the Special Investigator,created by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in November,as it creates a 75-strong team of federal and state police detectives,prosecutors and experts.
Multiple official sources said a key task for the office,partly led by former top Victorian judge Mark Weinberg,will be deciding how to manage the evidence about Mr Roberts-Smith’s alleged war crimes already uncovered by federal police taskforces.
Some commentators,including former head of defence Admiral Chris Barrie,have queried if the Brereton inquiry adequately considered the question of officer and senior command responsibility,despite exhaustive investigations into this issue by the Brereton probe. Others have attacked defence force chief Angus Campbell over his handling of the Brereton Report and his call to support the stripping of a meritorious unit citation to from the SASR.
The Brereton report said forensic investigations and hundreds of interviews had unearthed no direct knowledge or involvement by officers in war crimes. But the inquiry still concluded some commanders bore a moral and leadership responsibility for the alleged executions concealed from them by soldiers. Suspected war crimes whistleblowers and witnesses have also been targeted in some recent media reports,according to defence sources.
Australian Defence Association chief executive Neil James wrote on Friday that,“to our national detriment,much of the public discussion on war crimes alleged to have been committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan is focusing on secondary,peripheral or irrelevant issues.”
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“Straw-man arguments have also been peddled by those with other agendas,including a wish to obscure the key fact that premeditated and systemic war crimes were[allegedly] committed,and that they were inexcusable,” he wrote. Mr James stressed individuals accused were entitled to presumption of innocence.
Mr Roberts-Smith has made several media statements including the false claim that a media tip off - and not a referral from the Brereton Inquiry and the defence force - had prompted the police inquiries into his behaviour.
A statement promising the release of new photos showing officers drinking out of the boot was circulated this week among the SASR,veterans groups and journalists,although its authenticity could not be verified.
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