Ben Roberts-Smith wins bid to call SAS top brass to defamation trial
An SAS soldier has told a court he has one good reason for knowing Ben Roberts-Smith never ordered an execution in Afghanistan.
An SAS soldier says Ben Roberts-Smith never ordered the execution of a prisoner in a remote Afghan village and has told a court he has one good reason for knowing his accusers are wrong.
The testimony, which corroborates Mr Roberts-Smith’s evidence, comes as the Victoria Cross recipient won a bid to get one of the most senior SAS officers to testify in his case.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers over articles alleging he ordered or carried out war crime murders during deployments with the SAS while in Afghanistan.
He denies the six war crime claims including, as alleged in Nine’s court documents, that he ordered an Afghan special forces soldier to execute a prisoner in the village of Chenartu in late 2012.
An SAS soldier, known as Person 32, gave evidence in the Federal Court on Tuesday about the mission to Chenartu.
Nine claims a soldier known as Person 14 was standing outside the room in which Mr Roberts-Smith and a cohort of Afghan Wakunish soldiers were questioning detained locals.
Person 14 told the court he kicked a discoloured patch of wall and items fell out - it was a weapons cache.
Nine claims Mr Roberts-Smith then told the Afghan soldiers to execute the prisoner who was being questioned, a man in white robes who was clutching a grey waistcoat.
A Wakunish soldier stepped forward and opened fire into the man’s neck multiple times, Nine claims.
Person 32, on Tuesday, said that execution never happened and the story is wrong because Person 14 never discovered a cache.
“I was there when two caches were discovered, which is a big thing,” Person 32 told the court on Tuesday.
“I have no memory of being there when Person 14 discovered a cache.”
Nine’s barrister accused Person 32 of lying to help Mr Roberts-Smith’s case when he said he had no recollection of the Afghan soldiers executing one of their own countrymen on Mr Roberts-Smith’s order.
“The reason you are falsely denying that you have recollection (of the events) is that you’re trying to assist Mr Roberts-Smith in this case,” Nine barrister Nicholas Owens SC said.
“No, it’s not true,” Person 32 said.
This week the court heard a secretive witness, known only as Person 81, will be subpoenaed to give evidence in the high profile defamation suit.
Person 81 was on another mission, in 2009, where Mr Roberts-Smith is accused of two more prisoner executions - both of which he denies.
Mr Roberts-Smith won a bid to subpoena Person 81, who is now one of the top brass in the SAS regiment, after other witnesses said he was present when a tunnel was found beneath a Taliban compound known as Whiskey 108.
Nine claims two Afghans were found in the tunnel and detained by the SAS before Mr Roberts-Smith executed one and ordered a rookie soldier to shoot the second.
Mr Roberts-Smith and his supporters deny anyone was executed at Whiskey 108 and further deny anyone was found inside the tunnel beneath the insurgent base.
Person 81, according to other witnesses, was present when the tunnel was discovered.
It’s not yet known what the senior officer will say about the raid on Whiskey 108 because much of the legal argument was heard behind closed doors.
What is known is that Person 81’s subordinates have, so far, testified in one of two ways; some say no one was found in the tunnel, others say the SAS covered up a war crime.
The trial continues.