The Taliban stated on Thursday that foreign forces had committed “uncountable crimes” during the twenty-year conflict in Afghanistan after an ex-Australian soldier lost a defamation case involving allegations of executing Afghan civilians.
The Taliban administration’s spokesman, Bilal Karimi, stated that the incidents implicated in the Australian court case were a “small portion” of the many alleged crimes and that they did not have faith in any international court to investigate them.
Ben Roberts-Smith, a former member of Australia’s elite Special Air Service Regiment, filed a lawsuit against three newspapers alleging he was involved in the murders of unarmed detainees in Afghanistan in 2018.
In response to the allegations, Roberts-Smith filed a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit.
After two years, Justice Anthony Beskano found most of their charges “substantially true” and dismissed the case.
The defendants celebrated the verdict as a win for media freedom in Australia, where defamation rules often stifle the press.
According to writer Nick McKenzie, those who testified against their former comrade and Afghan victims also won.
The SAS heroes who exposed war criminal, bully, and liar Ben Roberts-Smith are vindicated today.
These males constitute the majority of the SAS, so Australia should be proud of them. “Today is a day of some small justice for the Afghan victims of Ben Roberts-Smith,” he continued.
Before the trial, Perth-born Roberts-Smith had been Australia’s most famous and distinguished living soldier.
He received Australia’s highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, for “conspicuous gallantry” in Afghanistan.
His image hung in the hallowed corridors of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, and he met Queen Elizabeth II.
However, meticulous reporting by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Canberra Times alleged that a lauded public persona concealed a pattern of criminal and illicit conduct.
Roberts-Smith reportedly shoved an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered his subordinates to shoot him.
He was also alleged to have participated in the machine-gunning of a man with a prosthetic limb, bringing the leg back to Australia and using it as a drinking vessel with fellow soldiers.
The judge acquitted the tall veteran of domestic abuse on a Canberra hotel guest.
The case was one of the longest-running defamation trials in Australia, and local media have estimated the legal costs at approximately US$16 million, making it one of the most expensive.
The media defendants’ solicitors have indicated that they will now pursue “indemnity costs against the applicant.”
