‘Direct threat’: SAS soldier backs Ben Roberts-Smith with crucial evidence against war crime claims

No cliff, no kick, no execution - an SAS soldier has backed Ben Roberts-Smith against Nine’s main war crime allegation.

An SAS soldier has bolstered Ben Roberts-Smith’s claims the only man shot dead during a 2012 was a Taliban “threat” to Australian soldiers, not a detained shepherd kicked off a cliff.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers over allegations he was involved in the killing of six unarmed Afghans while deployed with the SAS.

The Victoria Cross recipient denies all the allegations against him and much of the case has focused on Nine’s claim that Mr Roberts-Smith kicked a detained shepherd named Ali Jan off a cliff in September 2012.

Nine further claims two SAS soldiers, Person 4 and Person 11, dragged the injured Mr Jan across a dry creek bed before Person 11 executed him.

The three SAS soldiers and a handful of Afghan villagers are the only witnesses to what has become Nine’s “centrepiece” war crime allegation.

Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at court on Tuesday ahead of Person 11’s evidence. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Person 11, on Tuesday, told the court he and his two squadmates trudged through a dry creek bed and emerged into a cornfield on their way to meet their helicopter.

“Shortly after coming out of the dry creek bed I identified an individual in among the corn and rest of the fields,” Person 11 told the court.

“This individual was moving, in my assessment, in a very suspicious manner.”

“I saw this person was carrying a radio, which led me to make an assessment that this was a spotter who had come to report on our disposition and movements.”

A “spotter”, the court has heard, was a member of the Taliban insurgency who would report on the movement of Coalition soldiers using radios.

Person 11 said it was clear the man in the field was trying to remain hidden as the helicopters were fast approaching.

“I assessed he posed a direct threat to our extraction and incoming forces so I engaged,” Person 11 said.

An anonymised SAS soldier, known as Person 11, has told a court the only Afghan his patrol killed in a 2012 raid was a Taliban spotter. Picture: Stock image, Department of Defence.

Person 11 said he opened fire with his M4 assault rifle, discharging three to five rounds, and Mr Roberts-Smith standing behind him did the same.

They killed the man in the field, Person 11 said, and made sure the area was cleared.

The SAS approached the body and searched it, finding the ICOM radio near the corpse, and photographing the bloody scene.

Person 11’s story dovetails with Mr Roberts-Smith’s. Both men say a spotter was shot dead in a cornfield in the moments before the helicopters landed in Darwan.

But their story is totally different from that of Person 4 who recounted a far more brutal version of events when he testified in February.

Mr Roberts-Smith‘s barrister, Arthur Moses SC, put Nine’s allegation about Darwan squarely to Person 11.

“It‘s alleged by (Nine) in this case that the wound to the person’s mouth were caused by his head hitting a rock after he was kicked off a slope by Mr Roberts-Smith - what do you say about that allegation?” the barrister asked.

“I reject that allegation,” Person 11 responded.

Unlike Person 11 and Mr Roberts-Smith, Person 4 said the SAS patrol found fighting aged males in the buildings in Darwan and detained them.

Person 4 told the court one of the men was handcuffed and placed on his knees on the edge of a steep drop overlooking the dry creek bed below.

Mr Roberts-Smith took a few steps forward and kicked the Afghan in the chest, sending him sailing over the edge, Person 4 claimed.

“The individual was catapulted backward and fell down the slope. I looked down the drop off, I saw the individual’s face strike a large rock and sustain a serious injury… It knocked out a number of his teeth including his front teeth.”

High resolution photos of the Afghan village of Darwan, which was raided in 2012 by the SAS. Mr Roberts-Smith denies kicking unarmed farmer Ali Jan down a cliff face in the village, as alleged by Nine newspapers., Mr Roberts-Smith marked up the photograph during his evidence with black marker to show points and paths navigated by his troop.

Person 4 said he was “in shock” seeing the teeth explode out of Mr Jan’s face and he helped drag the injured shepherd across the creek.

A few minutes later he turned his back and heard two to three shots ring out.

Person 11 was standing there with his M4 raised, in a firing position, while Mr Roberts-Smith watched the execution, Person 4 told the court.

Person 4 told the court the SAS placed the radio on Mr Jan’s body and, when he inspected it closely, saw it had water inside the screen.

Earlier in the day, the court has heard, Mr Roberts-Smith had removed his body armour, swum across a river and killed an armed insurgent.

“It dawned on me where (the radio) had come from… The individual from across the river,” Person 4 told the court.

Darwan villagers have also told the court Mr Jan was not a Taliban member and was not carrying a radio.

They claimed, last year, that Mr Jan was “martyred” by a “big soldier”.

A former SAS soldier told the court, in February, he saw Mr Roberts-Smith kick an unarmed Afghan off an incline before the injured man was executed. Picture: Stock image, Department of Defence.

The SAS were in Darwan in September 2012 hunting a traitor from the Afghan army named Hekmatullah.

Hekmatullah had shot dead three Australian Diggers; Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate just weeks earlier as they played cards in the Australian base.

Person 11, on Tuesday, told the court the SAS were told Darwan was known to Hekmatullah or people there had harboured him.

“The search had gone on for two weeks involving all Coalition assets to bring justice for the three Australians who were murdered,” Person 11 said.

Hekmatullah spent seven years in an Afghan prison before being released from custody when the Taliban took control of the nation late last year.

The trial continues.