An SAS soldier has been sensationally accused of war crimes after an anonymous threat was aired in Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial.
Meanwhile another elite soldier has been accused of misremembering key details and had his service history questioned after giving evidence about another key war crime allegation.
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing Nine newspapers and journalists over a series of articles which he claims falsely accused him of war crimes and bullying while in the SAS.
Nine is defending the articles as true while Mr Roberts-Smith denies every allegation.
An SAS witness, known to the Federal Court as Person 18, has spent days giving evidence about rumours that swirled around the SAS regiment about Mr Roberts-Smith.
Some rumours stemmed from the 2010 battle of Tizak which both Mr Roberts-Smith and Person 18 fought.
Other rumours claimed Mr Roberts-Smith killed detained Afghans known as Persons Under Confinement or PUCs in other missions.
Person 18 has told the court the SAS leadership were initially reluctant to deal with the rumours circulating around the “country wives’ club” regiment.
The soldier had also told the court he received threatening letters, in June 2018, from someone calling themselves “a friend of the regiment”.
The letters warned Person 18 about spreading lies and told him to recant his evidence to a war crime inquiry run by the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force.
Nine claims Mr Roberts-Smith authored the letters – the Victoria Cross recipient denies that.
Person 18’s evidence was at its end on Tuesday afternoon when Nine’s lawyers asked Justice Anthony Besanko to allow more questions about one letter..
The letter, read to the court, claimed Person 18 was himself involved in war crimes.
“We are very aware of your murderous actions over many tours in Afghanistan,” the letter read, warning Person 18 would be criminally investigated.
“Just like when you participated in the execution of two PUCs from the Taliban’s makeshift medical compound following the battle in Tizak.”
“You know what you have done and so do we.”
The letter had been hinted at by Nine’s barristers, and the accusations partly aired in June 2021, but Wednesday marked the first time the allegations against Person 18 were fully put to the soldier.
Person 18 initially objected to answering questions about the allegation on the grounds of “self-incrimination” but then changed his mind – agreeing to answer questions from Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister.
Under cross examination Person 18 said he had not mentioned the allegations against him during his days of evidence out of “embarrassment”.
“It’s just not something I openly talk about with people, it’s an embarrassing claim,” he told the court.
Person 18 said he instead just told the court the threat’s author had an “extensive knowledge” of his “service history”.
The SAS soldier denied he was at the medical compound in Tizak.
Person 18 told the court the threats, which were sent to him at the SAS base in Perth, leaked to Nine and appeared on a 60 Minutes episode – but he was not the leak.
The mention of the two PUCs at Tizak were not broadcast in the 60 Minutes episode.
Ben Roberts-Smith had been asked about the allegations when Nine revealed them in June 2021.
He told the court he had “no idea” if the claims against Person 18 were accurate.
Another soldier, Person 40, was called on Wednesday afternoon to testify about a 2009 raid on a Taliban compound known as Whiskey 108.
Person 40 told the court he was inside Whiskey 108 when he heard a tunnel had been discovered and Australian troops were in a “commotion” over the unusual discovery.
The soldier told the court the troop’s interpreter was speaking to two insurgents as they came out of the tunnel.
One was limping, Person 40 told the court, and they were very frightened.
“One had a distinctive limp – the person with the prosthetic leg – immediately upon coming out of the tunnel he lifted his trousers, pointed to the prosthetic leg expecting some sort of sympathy from the troops,” Person 40 told the court.
xjmtzywMr Moses told Person 40 there was no interpreter in Whiskey 108 during the raid.
Person 40 disagreed – insisting there was an interpreter with the SAS.
The soldier said the troop was preparing to extract from Whiskey 108 when he heard a burst of machine gun fire.
As the SAS left, Person 40 continued, he saw the man with the fake leg shot dead.
Nine has claimed Mr Roberts-Smith executed the man with the fake leg outside Whiskey 108.
They also claim he either ordered or was present when another senior soldier ordered the SAS troop’s “rookie” shoot the other Afghan so the new soldier could be “blooded”.
He denies both allegations.
Person 40 denied claims, raised by Mr Moses, that he had been ejected from the SAS patrol group over “poor performance”.
Rather, Person 40 told the court, the patrol was “toxic” and its commander, Person 29, had effectively complained so he would be moved.
Person 40 told the court that patrol commander, Person 29, approached him last year and delivered a message about giving evidence in the court case.
“(Person 29 said) ‘You don’t need to be a witness, speak to Roberts-Smith’s lawyers they’ll get you to sign a piece of paper so you don’t have to be a witness’,” Person 40 told the court.
“I was very surprised, I said ‘yep okay’, his other comment was ‘if you don’t he’ll see you in court’.”
The trial continues.
