Famed Australian soldier loses war crimes defamation case
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00:00 A day of reckoning for Australia's most highly decorated living war veteran.
00:05 A court in Sydney has found that three newspapers did not defame former elite special air services
00:10 soldier Ben Robert Smith when they reported his involvement in the murders of six unarmed
00:15 prisoners in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2012, a vindication for the journalists who reported
00:22 the story.
00:23 Today is a day of justice.
00:24 It's a day of justice for those brave men of the SAS who stood up and told the truth
00:30 about who Ben Robert Smith is, a war criminal, a bully and a liar.
00:35 Today is a day of some small justice for the Afghan victims of Ben Robert Smith.
00:41 Robert Smith was awarded the country's top military honour, the Victoria Cross, in 2011
00:46 for gallantry on the Afghan battlefield.
00:49 But in 2018, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Canberra Times and The Age published reports
00:54 accusing him of war crimes, including kicking a handcuffed farmer off a cliff and shooting
00:59 him dead, shooting a prisoner in the back before taking his prosthetic leg for a drinking
01:04 vessel and ordering at least two other murders.
01:07 Robert Smith denied any wrongdoing and sued for millions in damages.
01:11 The 110-day trial is estimated to have cost the equivalent of some 15 million euros.
01:17 Publishing a story of this magnitude is never easy, but high-quality investigative journalism
01:22 is vital to a thriving democracy.
01:25 Robert Smith has yet to face criminal charges over the alleged killings.
01:29 But more legal action is expected, as Australia reckons with its role in the Afghan war.
01:35 A 2020 military investigation found that special forces had unlawfully killed some 39 prisoners
01:41 and civilians.