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Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with

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Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. Australia's most highly decorated living soldier,

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Speaker 1: Ben Roberts Smith, is facing the prospect of life in

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Speaker 1: prison if he's convicted of five counts of war crime

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Speaker 1: murder after being arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning.

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Speaker 1: It's likely Robert Smith, who has not yet been required

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Speaker 1: to enter a plea, will strongly defend the chargers. Robert

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Speaker 1: Smith is forty seven years old now and enlisted as

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Speaker 1: a soldier in the Australian Army fresh out of school

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Speaker 1: at the age of eighteen. He did two tours in

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Speaker 1: East team Or before working his way through the arduous

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Speaker 1: selection courses to enter the Special Air Service Regiment, a

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Speaker 1: special forces unit deployed on long range reconnaissance, counterinsurgency and

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Speaker 1: tactical missions. Robert Smith served in Fiji, Iraq and six

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Speaker 1: tours in Afghanistan, where in twenty ten he was named

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Speaker 1: in dispatches for his courage in staging a daring rescue

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Speaker 1: of his patrol after they got pinned down by Taliban

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Speaker 1: fire while searching for an alleged enemy commander Robert Smith

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Speaker 1: was recorded as darting away from his comrades to draw

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Speaker 1: fire towards himself before storming the insurgent's positions. For this,

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Speaker 1: he was awarded the Victoria Cross, Australia's highest award for gallantry.

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Speaker 1: He was also awarded the Medal for Gallantry and a

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Speaker 1: commendation for distinguished service. But in twenty seventeen, allegations began

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Speaker 1: to emerge that Robert Smith had engaged in unlawful killings

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Speaker 1: while on duty in Afghanistan, including allegedly murdering a teenage boy.

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Speaker 1: Other members of the SASR raised allegations that Robert Smith

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Speaker 1: was a war criminal. Robert Smith, who by van had

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Speaker 1: left the army and become an executive at seven West Media,

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Speaker 1: launched defamation action against Nine Entertainment, publisher of the Sydney

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Speaker 1: Morning Herald and the Age. He lost in devastating fashion,

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Speaker 1: with Justice Anthony Bissanco of the Federal Court declaring Robert

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Speaker 1: Smith was complicit in the death of four Afghan nationals

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Speaker 1: and had disgraced his country. In light of my conclusions,

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Speaker 1: each proceeding must be dismissed devastated with the result.

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Speaker 2: It's a terrible outcome and it's the correct outcome.

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Speaker 3: Today is a day of justice. It's a day of

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Speaker 3: justice for those brave men of the SAS who stood

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Speaker 3: up and told the truth about who then Robert Smith

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Speaker 3: is a war criminal, a bully and a liar.

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Speaker 1: Robert Smith appealed unsuccessfully to the full Bench of the

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Speaker 1: Federal Court and then the High Court, which refused leave

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Speaker 1: to appeal in twenty twenty five. Since then, a Special

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Speaker 1: War Crimes Investigator has been working with Australian Federal Police

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Speaker 1: on the case, and on Tuesday morning they swooped. Here's

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Speaker 1: AFP Commissioner Chrissy Barrett, a.

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Speaker 2: Former Australian Defense Force member, has today been arrested and

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Speaker 2: will be charged with five counts of war crime murder

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Speaker 2: after a joint investigation between the Office of the Special

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Speaker 2: Investigator and the AFP. The former soldier was arrested at

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Speaker 2: Sydney's Domestic Airport this morning and is expected to face

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Speaker 2: a new South Wales court later today. It will be

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Speaker 2: alleged the man was a member of the ADF when

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Speaker 2: he was involved in the death of Afghan nationals between

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Speaker 2: two thousand and nine and twenty twelve in circumstances that

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Speaker 2: constitute war crimes. Under the Commonwealth Criminal Code, the offense

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Speaker 2: of war crime murder carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

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Speaker 2: It will be alleged the victims were not taking part

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Speaker 2: in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder in Afghanistan.

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Speaker 2: It will be alleged the victims were detained, unarmed and

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Speaker 2: were under the control of EIGHTYF members when they were killed.

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Speaker 2: It will be alleged the victims were shot by the

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Speaker 2: accused or shot by subordinate menism of the ADF in

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Speaker 2: the presence of and acting on the orders of the accused.

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Speaker 1: An Australian Federal Police press release says Robert Smith is

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Speaker 1: accused of intentionally causing two deaths and aiding a betting,

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Speaker 1: counseling or procuring another person to intentionally cause the other

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Speaker 1: three deaths. The Director of the Office of the Special Investigator,

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Speaker 1: Ross Barnett, said other people could be charged.

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Speaker 4: Will continue this investigation until we get to the endpoint

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Speaker 4: and wherever the evidence leads, that's where we'll go. If

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Speaker 4: the evidence leads to other people needing to be charged,

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Speaker 4: you can be assured that will happen.

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Speaker 1: He and Barrett refuse to give more details about Roberts

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Speaker 1: Smith's arrest apart from confirming he'd been intercepted by officers

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Speaker 1: after landing in Sydney on a flight from Brisbane.

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Speaker 4: It is also important to acknowledge that the person charge

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Speaker 4: is entitled to the presumption of innocence until determined otherwise.

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Speaker 1: The Office of the Special Investigator was created by then

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Speaker 1: Prime Minister Scott Morrison in twenty two to look into

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Speaker 1: allegations of war crimes that had also been examined by

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Speaker 1: Inspector General Paul Breton. Breton found in twenty twenty that

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Speaker 1: thirty nine individuals had been killed unlawfully while non combatants

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Speaker 1: or prisoners of Australian forces. The Breton report indicated a

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Speaker 1: culture of cover up, including senior officers allegedly encouraging junior

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Speaker 1: soldiers to shoot prisoners in a ritual known as blooding,

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Speaker 1: and planting radios or weapons on unarmed people to conceal

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Speaker 1: alleged war crimes. Barnett said the OSI was still working

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Speaker 1: on several of the allegations of murder it was tasked

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Speaker 1: with investigating.

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Speaker 4: These investigations are incredibly complex, unlike a conventional investigation, that's

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Speaker 4: conducted in Australia. The OSI is being tasked with investigating

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Speaker 4: literally dozens of murders alleged to have been committed in

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Speaker 4: the middle of a war zone and a country nine

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Speaker 4: thousand klumnus from Australia that we can no longer access.

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Speaker 4: We don't have access to the crime scenes. We don't

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Speaker 4: have photographs, side plans, measurements, the recovery of projectiles, blood

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Speaker 4: spatter analysis, all of those things we would normally get

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Speaker 4: at a crime scene. There's no post mortem, therefore there's

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Speaker 4: no official cause of death.

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Speaker 1: Ben Robert Smith has always strongly denied any wrongdoing and

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Speaker 1: will now begin marshaling his defense no doubt, including engaging

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Speaker 1: high flying barristers to represent him in court if his

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Speaker 1: previous conduct is any measure. In the defamation matter, Robert

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Speaker 1: Smith was found to have committed offense only on the

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Speaker 1: balance of probabilities, the civil standard, but in a criminal

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Speaker 1: trial prosecutors would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that

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Speaker 1: he is guilty, a much higher standard of proof. That

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Speaker 1: developing story is live right now at Beaustralian dot com

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Speaker 1: dot au dous come back to the front first thing

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Speaker 1: in the morning for our look at the intriguing secret

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Speaker 1: life of one of our best known billionaires, Andrew Twiggy

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Speaker 1: Forrest is all about minerals, renewables and R. M. Williams boots,

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Speaker 1: but he also turns out to be an international diplomatic

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Speaker 1: wheeler and dealer. That's right here, Wednesday morning,