\n One of Australia's most decorated soldiers on Friday lost a legal bid to overturn bombshell court findings that implicated him in war crimes while serving in Afghanistan.\n<\/p>\n
\n Former SAS commando Ben Roberts-Smith has been fighting to salvage his tattered reputation since 2018, when newspapers unearthed allegations he took part in the murder of unarmed Afghan prisoners.\n<\/p>\n
\n His multi-million dollar bid to sue three Australian newspapers for defamation failed in 2023, with a judge ruling the bulk of the journalists' claims were \"substantially true\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The 46-year-old suffered another setback on Friday, when Australia's Federal Court dismissed his appeal.\n<\/p>\n
\n Justice Nye Perram withheld the reasons for the decision, saying there were national security implications the government must consider before they are released.\n<\/p>\n
\n A published summary said there was sufficient evidence to support findings Roberts-Smith had \"murdered four Afghan men\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Roberts-Smith said he would now fight to clear his name in Australia's High Court -- his last avenue of legal appeal.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,\" he told local media in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We will immediately seek to challenge this judgement in the High Court of Australia.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Roberts-Smith argued in his appeal that the judge \"erred\" in the way he assessed some of the evidence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Perth-born Roberts-Smith had been Australia's most famous and distinguished living soldier.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Decorated soldier -\n<\/p>\n
\n He won the Victoria Cross -- Australia's highest military honour -- for \"conspicuous gallantry\" in Afghanistan while on the hunt for a senior Taliban commander.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times shredded this reputation with a series of reports in 2018.\n<\/p>\n
\n The papers reported Roberts-Smith had kicked an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered subordinates to shoot him.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was also said to have taken part in the machine-gunning of a man with a prosthetic leg, which was later brought back to an army bar and used as a drinking vessel.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 2023 court ruling ultimately implicated Roberts-Smith in the murder of four unarmed Afghan prisoners.\n<\/p>\n
\n Civil court matters such as defamation have a lower standard of proof than criminal trials.\n<\/p>\n
\n Roberts-Smith has not faced criminal charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n Australia deployed 39,000 troops to Afghanistan over two decades as part of US and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and other militant groups.\n<\/p>\n
\n A 2020 military investigation found special forces personnel \"unlawfully killed\" 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners, revealing allegations of summary executions, body count competitions and torture by Australian forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of Australia's most decorated soldiers on Friday lost a legal bid to overturn bombshell court findings that implicated him in war crimes while serving in Afghanistan. Former SAS commando Ben Roberts-Smith has been fighting to salvage his tattered reputation since 2018, when newspapers unearthed allegations he took part in the murder of unarmed Afghan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-145378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n