Ben Roberts-Smith blasts Nine’s ‘abuse of power’

Ben Roberts-Smith has ­labelled the fight to clear his name his ‘most important’ battle.

Ben Roberts-Smith maintains allegations against him are the product of a malicious whispering campaign by a small number of serving and former SASR operators. Picture: Sean Davey

Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has ­labelled the fight to clear his name of war crimes allegations his “most important” battle, accusing Nine newspapers of engaging in a commercially motivated campaign to tear him down.

In a savagely worded statement, Mr Roberts-Smith lashed out at the media company, which over the past year has published and broadcast a series of stories accusing Mr Roberts-Smith of a range of war crimes, including ­directing the murder of an unarmed Afghan prisoner. “I want Australians to know that I absolutely deny these hurtful allegations,” Mr Roberts-Smith said. “I believe Nine’s continued publication of these false claims is malicious and commercially motivated.”

The trigger for Mr Roberts-Smith statement was a program aired on Nine’s 60 Minutes program two weeks ago that named Mr Roberts-Smith as the Australian soldier allegedly responsible for the murder of an Afghan prisoner named Ali Jan during a military operation in Afghanistan in September 2012.

According to Nine, Mr Roberts-Smith, then a corporal with the Special Air Services Regiment, took Ali Jan from a prisoner holding area then kicked him off a cliff or retaining wall. A second, unnamed soldier, then allegedly shot Ali Jan under instructions from Mr ­Roberts-Smith.

The allegations, first published by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers in June last year, which were then owned by Fairfax Media, triggered a defamation suit from Mr Roberts-Smith.

Nine newspapers subsequently accused Mr Roberts-Smith of the unlawful killing of five other ­Afghans, but because those alle­gations formed part of Nine’s legal ­defence, they were protected from further libel action. The defamation trial, which is scheduled for next June, is shaping up to be the most personal and bitterly fought high-profile defamation case in years.

Mr Roberts-Smith, who was awarded the Medal of Gallantry in 2006 and the Victoria Cross in 2010, cast the looming legal battle as a contest between his military service ­record and the integrity of Nine’s journalism.

“I welcome that fight,” he said.

Mr Roberts-Smith has long maintained that the allegations against him are the product of a malicious whispering campaign by a small number of serving and former SASR operators jealous of his service record and with a personal grudge against him.

Having been the subject of such “poisonous” gossip for so long, Mr Roberts-Smith said he wanted his accusers brought into the light and the claims against him subject to “rigorous courtroom cross-examination”.

He said Nine’s decision to ­repeat the allegations on 60 Minutes represented an “abuse of power” by the media company.

“What was aired by Nine’s 60 Minutes program on Sunday 22 September, 2019, shows the lengths Nine will go to smear me and cast a dark cloud over my service to this nation,” he said. It was also an attempt to prejudge two ­official inquiries examining the ­alleged incident, one an Australian Federal Police criminal probe, the second a long-running inquiry by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force into possible war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Neither of the official inquires has returned any finding.

Nine newspapers has defended its decision to air the allegations and strenuously denied its stories were anything but public-interest journalism.

“Reporting investigations under way, whether or not they are being conducted in public or have resulted in charges, is the bread and butter of journalism, and crucial to keeping the system, including the justice system, honest,” Nine said in an article defending its stories.

Mr Roberts-Smith hinted that Nine’s decision to repeat the allegations on 60 Minutes was essentially a legal tactic aimed at swaying the Federal Court defamation proceedings.

He said since the program aired, he had been flooded with messages of support, for which he was grateful.

“My family and I have been through very dark times in the past two years,” Mr Roberts-Smith said.

“The humiliation and vilification directed at me by Fairfax and Nine has been bewildering and hugely distressing for myself and my family.”