Ben Roberts-Smith’s friend denies ordering killing of Afghan prisoner

A friend and former comrade of war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has denied ordering the killing of any Afghan prisoners, as he gave evidence in support of the decorated former soldier in the Federal Court.

Person 5, a former Special Air Service soldier who previously served in the United Kingdom’s Special Boat Service, is the first SAS witness to give evidence for Roberts-Smith in his marathon defamation case against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times.

Ben Roberts-Smith at the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The newspapers allege as part of their defence that Roberts-Smith directed a “rookie” soldier dubbed Person 4 to kill an unarmed Afghan prisoner in 2009. The media outlets allege Person 5 officially ordered that killing.

Person 5 told the court he met Roberts-Smith in 2002 when he joined the SAS, and the men first served in a patrol together in Afghanistan in 2009 when he was patrol commander and Roberts-Smith was his second-in-charge.

Person 5, whose identity cannot be revealed for national security reasons, described his relationship with Roberts-Smith as “very good” and said it was an “easy choice” to make him his 2IC in 2009 because “I had seen how capable he was”.

A serving SAS soldier dubbed Person 18 told the court last month that he overheard Person 5 tell Roberts-Smith after a 2009 mission to a compound in Afghanistan codenamed Whiskey 108 that they had “blooded the rookie”. Person 18 said it was a “running joke” that Person 4 was the “rookie”.

But Person 5 told the court on Tuesday that he first heard the term “blooding the rookie” in the media. He had never used the term, he said. He said the term blooding had been used for centuries by armies to refer to a new member getting their first “kill” in battle. He said he had never killed a prisoner, nor ordered a subordinate to carry out such a killing.

Person 5 told the court that the rules of engagement under which the SAS operated in Afghanistan allowed soldiers to use lethal force in self-defence. Enemy combatants who surrendered to Australian troops were not killed but “PUCed”, he said, meaning they were detained and became persons under the control of the SAS.

The court has previously heard evidence from another serving SAS soldier, Person 41, that Roberts-Smith, then second-in-charge to Person 5, told Person 4 during the 2009 mission to shoot a captive Afghan man who had been discovered in a tunnel at Whiskey 108.

“RS ... walked down and grabbed the Afghan male by the scruff of the shirt, picked him up, marched him a couple of metres forward [until] he was in front of Person 4,” Person 41 said in February.

“He then kicked him in the back of the legs behind the knees until he was kneeling down in front of Person 4. He pointed to the [Afghan man] ... and said to Person 4, ‘Shoot him.’”

Person 41 said he heard but did not see the shots being fired, because he did not want to look. Shortly after he heard the shots, he saw a “dead Afghan male” at the feet of Person 4, Person 41 said.

Person 5 said on Tuesday that a soldier known as Person 35 investigated the tunnel in Whiskey 108 where Person 41 said the Afghan man had been found and shouted “clear”, meaning that nobody was found inside it. Roberts-Smith has also given evidence that no men were found inside the tunnel.

Person 5 said he was speaking to other team commanders at Whiskey 108 when he heard gunshots outside the compound. He said he yelled to Roberts-Smith, who was with Person 4, “and asked him if they were right”.

Roberts-Smith told him two enemy combatants had been killed in action, he said.

Roberts-Smith is suing The Age, the Herald and The Canberra Times over a series of articles in 2018 that he says portray him as a war criminal who was involved in the unlawful killing of Afghan prisoners.

The Victoria Cross recipient denies all wrongdoing and says any killings took place lawfully in the heat of battle. The newspapers are seeking to rely on a defence of truth and allege Roberts-Smith committed or was involved in six unlawful killings in Afghanistan.

Nicholas Owens, SC, acting for the newspapers, urged Justice Anthony Besanko on Tuesday to reject parts of Person 5’s evidence about the Whiskey 108 mission on the basis that the media outlets’ SAS witnesses, who have already given evidence, had not been asked for their response to his claims.

Owens said it was an “exceptional circumstance” justifying the immediate rejection of the evidence.

“I’ve never seen that order made in the middle of a trial, Mr Owens,” Besanko said. Arthur Moses, SC, acting for Roberts-Smith, said it would be an “unprecedented” step.

The trial continues.

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