A highly decorated Australian military veteran will stay locked up after his attorneys declined to pursue bail following his arrest on serious war crimes allegations.
Authorities took Ben Roberts-Smith, age 47, into custody Tuesday on five war crimes charges related to the deaths of five Afghan civilians during the period from 2009 to 2012. The charges each carry potential life imprisonment.
Officials denied him bail and transported him to Sydney’s Silverwater Correctional Complex, where he spent Tuesday night.
Roberts-Smith was absent from Wednesday morning’s bail proceeding, conducted via video conference, according to local news outlets.
Attorney Jordan Portokalli informed the court his client would not request release from detention, instead asking for a face-to-face hearing scheduled for later that day.
Judge Lucas Swan set the next court date for June 4, ensuring Roberts-Smith will stay incarcerated until then unless his legal representatives can arrange an earlier proceeding.
The former Special Air Services Regiment member earned recognition as a national war hero through his service across six deployments to Afghanistan spanning 2006 through 2012.
Military officials bestowed numerous prestigious honors upon him, including the Victoria Cross, which represents the top military award for armed forces personnel from Britain and Commonwealth nations.
Federal police investigators plan to argue during trial that the alleged victims were not engaged in combat when killed and were being held as unarmed detainees under Australian military control at the time of their deaths.
Authorities will also contend that Roberts-Smith either personally shot the victims or directed subordinates to kill them while he was present.
These criminal charges stem from a collaborative probe between federal police and the Office of the Special Investigator, an agency established to investigate alleged criminal behavior by Australian defense personnel, which launched in 2021.
Roberts-Smith has continuously rejected claims of misconduct during his military tenure, many of which Nine Entertainment publications first revealed through reporting that began in 2018.
He mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge against these accusations in what became Australia’s costliest defamation case, with a court ultimately determining he likely participated in killing four Afghan civilians.
