A former SAS soldier charged with war crimes has denied murdering civilians, claiming he never broke the rules of engagement, in a bombshell interview with a radio shock jock.
Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, was arrested in April and charged with murdering or ordering the murders of five unarmed detainees while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Sydney’s 2GB host Ben Fordham has presented extended extracts of a 2.5-hour interview in which he asks Roberts-Smith, 47, explicitly if he shot civilians during his service.
“I didn’t bloody murder anyone,” Roberts-Smith said in extracts aired on Thursday morning.
In a series of rapid-fire questions, Roberts-Smith bluntly denied the accusations levelled against him.
“Did you shoot prisoners?” Mr Fordham asked.
“No,” Roberts-Smith replied.
“Did you see anyone else shooting prisoners?”
“No.”
In a wide-ranging conversation conducted in Queensland on October 8, and due to be published in full on YouTube later on Thursday, Roberts-Smith said he conducted himself professionally in the theatre of war.
“I wouldn’t change a single thing. I would do it all exactly the same way because I know that I did the right thing,” he said on Thursday.
“I know that I was prepared to die for this country every time I went outside the wire, and I know I did whatever I could to keep my mates alive.
“But I never broke the rules of engagement.”
The Victoria Cross recipient is accused of machine-gunning Afghan prisoner Mohammed Essa and ordering the execution of his son Ahmadullah to “blood the rookie” during a raid at a compound in April 2009.
The then-SAS soldier allegedly placed firearms on the bodies to falsely claim they were enemy combatants, court documents said.
In August 2012, at the village of Darwan, Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking a handcuffed man named Ali Jan off a 10-metre cliff before ordering that he be dragged to a creek bed and shot.
Two months later at Syahchow, he allegedly lined up two prisoners in a corn field before shooting one of them with another soldier.
He ordered a subordinate to shoot the other prisoner before throwing a grenade on the bodies to cover up what he had done, prosecutors allege.
“All I’m asking for is a fair shake, mate,” Roberts-Smith said regarding the ongoing court case.
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
