Senator Jacqui Lambie has referred senior Defence Force officers to the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
One of Australia’s leading defence barristers says jurors “from outer space” would be needed to hear ex-soldier Ben Roberts-Smith’s case if it went to trial. But other legal experts argue the judicial system is robust and that jurors can be trusted to fulfil their duty.
Ben Roberts-Smith has ruled out apologising to the families affected by his actions in Afghanistan.
A new joint taskforce will investigate Ben Roberts-Smith’s alleged crimes in Afghanistan after a long-running federal police inquiry was abandoned over concerns about admissibility of evidence.
Military experts say it would have been easier to remove honours from more junior officers if the nation’s most senior military leader handed back his own.
The offer was made to then-defence minister Linda Reynolds but was turned down by the Morrison government because it did not want anybody’s medals revoked.
The sociologist who triggered the Brereton war crimes inquiry says soldiers who oversaw alleged wrongdoing in Afghanistan should be stripped of their honours.
Former PM Kevin Rudd praised Australia’s democratic system for confronting “hard and ugly truths” when many other countries would have “swept them under the rug”.
A Special Air Service soldier told the Federal Court that Ben Roberts-Smith’s bullying,including a death threat,cost him “years of lost sleep”.
The judge who presided over Ben Roberts-Smith’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit said the former soldier had a motive to lie and had threatened a soldier who ultimately gave evidence against him.
A Federal Court judge was not satisfied the former SAS soldier had assaulted a former lover but said he had engaged in other disturbing behaviour against her.