Pauline Hanson Leads Furious Backlash Over Decorated Soldier's Arrest
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has ignited a furious online backlash following the arrest of Australia's most decorated soldier over alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan. Ben Roberts-Smith, aged forty-seven, was taken into custody by Australian Federal Police officers at Sydney Domestic Airport on Tuesday morning. The arrest occurred after he arrived on a flight from Brisbane, reportedly in front of his teenage twin daughters.
Charges and Potential Penalties
The Victoria Cross recipient will face court later on Tuesday, charged with five counts of war crime-murder. This follows a lengthy joint investigation between the Office of the Special Investigator and the Australian Federal Police. The maximum penalty for the offence of war crime–murder is life imprisonment, highlighting the severity of the allegations.
Hanson's Staunch Support
Senator Hanson vowed to stand by Roberts-Smith in the wake of his arrest, while criticising authorities over the substantial cost incurred to reach this stage. "I remain steadfast in my support," the senator declared in an online post. "Ben, his immediate and broader defence family need the Australian people's support right now and I will not abandon him like so many other politicians." Hanson pointedly noted that the AFP and OSI have spent three hundred million dollars over a decade to arrive at this point.
Controversial Activist's Defence
Controversial activist Drew Pavlou was also quick to leap to Roberts-Smith's defence. He highlighted that Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross for singlehandedly storming two Taliban machine gun positions to save his SAS team. "And this is how we repay him," Pavlou wrote. He claimed an Australian Afghan war veteran told him the government paid for billboards in Afghanistan offering to pay random Afghans to come forward with war crime allegations. "What country on Earth would do this to itself?" Pavlou questioned, adding, "Absolutely retarded to purge your own men when fighting a brutal barbaric enemy that respects no rules whatsoever."
Greens Senator's Contrasting View
However, not everyone agreed with the backlash. Greens senator David Shoebridge posted a screenshot of an article about the arrests with the simple comment: "Good." Following this, Shoebridge issued a press release praising the arrest. "This is a moment of accountability and highlights the appalling cost of war on all sides," he stated. "No one should be above the law. These charges relate to killings that happened in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, for victims and survivors that is far too long to wait for justice."
Prime Minister's Silence and AFP Statement
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese repeatedly refused to weigh in on the case during a press conference on Tuesday. Meanwhile, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett confirmed a forty-seven-year-old had been charged with five counts of war crime-murder during a press conference outside the AFP Sydney Headquarters. She refused to refer to Roberts-Smith by name under the AFP's usual practice. "It will be alleged the man was a member of the ADF when he was involved in the deaths of Afghan nationals between 2009 and 2012, in circumstances that constitute war crimes under the Commonwealth criminal code," Commissioner Barrett said.
Allegations and Investigation Details
She detailed that it will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed, and under the control of ADF members when they were killed. The alleged victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in the war zone. The Office of the Special Investigator, comprising fifty-four investigators, launched an investigation into the soldier in 2021, with about a dozen other war crimes investigations into ADF personnel in Afghanistan ongoing.
Previous Court Findings
A Federal Court judge previously found Roberts-Smith was responsible for a number of killings in a blockbuster defamation trial against Nine newspapers. Justice Anthony Besanko's findings were on the balance of probabilities, rather than the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt. The articles, published in 2018, included claims Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff and ordered his execution, and machine-gunned another prisoner, taking his prosthetic leg home as a souvenir drinking vessel.
Specific Allegations and Maintained Innocence
Justice Besanko found Roberts-Smith machine-gunned an unarmed prisoner in the back, taking the man's prosthetic leg back to Australia to use as a beer drinking vessel during a 2009 raid on a compound codenamed Whiskey 108. He also said Roberts-Smith stood silent while a rookie soldier was ordered to execute an elderly Afghan prisoner so he could be 'blooded'. Justice Besanko found one of the newspapers' central claims – that Mr Roberts-Smith had kicked an unarmed and handcuffed man, Ali Jan, off a ten-metre cliff and then ensured he was shot – was true. Despite these findings, the alleged war criminal has maintained his innocence throughout.
