‘Big soldier’ kicked Ali off a cliff Afghan farmer’s relative testifies at Ben Roberts-Smith trial

A man who allegedly witnessed Australian soldiers execute Afghan Ali Jan says the unarmed farmer had gunshot wounds to his face and body, court hears.

Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at court in Sydney on Monday. Picture: Jeremy Piper

A witness has claimed he saw a “big soldier” kick Afghan farmer Ali Jan off a cliff and that the man was then dragged behind a berry tree, where shots rang out, in a dramatic day of testimony in the defamation case brought by war hero Ben Roberts-Smith.

The next time the witness saw Ali Jan he was dead, with gunshot wounds to his face and stomach, the Federal Court has heard.

On Monday, Ali Jan’s step-nephew, Mohammed Hanifa, recounted the day Australian troops swept through the village of Darwan in September, 2012, hunting for a rogue Afghan soldier who had killed three Australians.

The Australian soldiers – with Ben Roberts-Smith leading one team – were acting on intelligence reports that the killer, named Hekmatullah, was being sheltered in the village by Taliban sympathisers.

The alleged killing of Ali Jan is the centrepiece allegation in Mr Roberts-Smiths’ action against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over claims that he committed or was complicit in six unlawful killings during deployments to Afghanistan.

Nine alleges Mr Roberts-Smith kicked Ali Jan off a cliff, and then agreed with a colleague – Person 11 – that Mr Jan would be shot dead. He denies the allegations and says the reports portray him as a war criminal.

On Monday, barrister Nicholas Owens, SC, for Nine newspapers, led Ali Jan’s step-nephew, Mohammed Hanifa, through the raid on Darwan.

Speaking via an interpreter from Kabul, Mr Hanifa said he and Ali Jan were sheltering in a guesthouse when they heard four helicopters flying over Darwan, an area controlled by the Taliban. As Australian soldiers disembarked the helicopter and fanned out across the village, they began their search for Hekmatullah.

“I said there is a raid,” Mr Hanifa told the court. “They were coming, coming, coming.” When Australian soldiers arrived at the guesthouse he shared with his neighbour, Man Gul, Mr Hanifa was grabbed by the neck.

He was then handcuffed by a soldier who escorted him outside, Mr Hanifa said, with the soldier then proceeding to slam his head into a wall while interrogating him about the whereabouts of Hekmatullah.

“Then he took out a pistol and he put it on my throat, he put it there and he said you’re a Talib, I shot your father,” Mr Hanifa told the court. “And what happened after that?” Mr Owens asked. “He hit me with the pistol and he said show me Hekmatullah, otherwise I will shoot you in your head.”

Mr Hanifa said he saw a “big soldier” kick Ali Jan “really hard” after the farmer smiled at the soldiers. “He was rolling down, rolling down, until he reached the river,” he said. “The soldier was looking at him, he was standing there and looking at him.”

Mr Hanifa said he saw two soldiers dragging Ali Jan behind a berry tree and then heard gunshots. When he next saw Ali Jan, he was dead.

The farmer had sustained gunshot wounds to his face and stomach, and was missing a tooth, he said. Flesh had also been removed from Ali Jan’s left hand. However, Mr Hanifa was repeatedly unable to identify the embankment or slope that Nine alleges Mr Roberts-Smith kicked Ali Jan off.

Under cross-examination late on Monday, Bruce McClintock, SC, acting for Mr Roberts-Smith, put to Mr Hanifa that he was lying about seeing Ali Jan being dragged behind the berry tree. “You actually didn’t hear any gunshots that day, did you?” Mr McClintock said. “Of course I heard them,” Mr Hanifa replied.

Last month, Mr McClintock told the court that “if someone called Ali Jan did die” in Afghanistan, it was because he was a Taliban spotter who was killed within the soldiers’ rules of engagement.

The man had been shot in a cornfield – often used in Taliban fights to ambush western soldiers – and was found with a radio, he said. When Mr Hanifa was shown a photograph of Ali Jan’s body on Monday, he said the radio had been planted on his friend’s body after the killing.

“These other things, the bag and the other device, they were not there,” he said. “They have put these things on his body.”

Asked by Mr Owens if he had ever seen Ali Jan carry a radio, Mr Hanifa said: “By God, by God he had nothing on him, they have put that equipment on him.”

The trial continues.