Australia's Most Decorated Soldier Faces Five Murder Charges for War Crimes. The Country is Dividied.
Ben Roberts-Smith won the Victoria Cross, shook hands with the Queen, and was named Father of the Year. Now he's on bail, charged with executing unarmed Afghan detainees — and the trial hasn't even st
I grew up in Australia. I know what the Anzac legend means — not as mythology, but as something closer to civic religion. The slouch hat, the mateship, the idea that the men sent to fight in distant wars on the nation’s behalf deserve honor, not prosecution, when they come home.
That belief is now on trial alongside Ben Roberts-Smith.
On April 7, Australian Federal Police arrested the 47-year-old former Special Air Service Regiment corporal at Sydney Airport as he stepped off a flight from Brisbane — in full view of cameras, in front of his teenage daughters — charging him with five counts of murder as a war crime. He spent ten days in custody before a judge granted bail, noting he would otherwise face “years and years” behind bars before his case was even heard.
Mr. Roberts-Smith has always denied wrongdoing. He denied it again in a public statement two days after his release. What is really going on?
