Top -soldier loses war crimes.

The most decorated, living soldier of Australia, Ben Roberts-Smith, has lost against a pioneering defamation judgment in which he committed war crimes.

A judge in 2023 decided that news articles in which the recipient of Victoria Cross had murdered four unarmed Afghans, but Mr. Roberts-Smith had argued that the judge had made legal mistakes.

The civil procedure was the first time in history that a court of Australian armed forces assessed claims for war crimes.

A jury of three federal court judges on Friday confirmed the original judgment.

Mr. Roberts-Smith, who left the defense force in 2013, retains his innocence and was not charged with the claims to a criminal court court, in which there is a higher burden of proof.

The former Special Forces Corporal sued three Australian newspapers for a series of articles that were used in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012 in Afghanistan.

At the time when the articles were published in 2018, Mr. Roberts-Smith was considered a national hero after he had honored the highest military honor in Australia for the general overwhelming Taliban fighter who attacked his special Air Service (SAS).

The 46-year-old argued that the alleged murders occurred legally during the fight or did not happen at all, and claimed that the papers had ruined his life with their reports.

His defamation, which has referred to “the process of the century” in Australia, took over 120 days and it is now rumored that they cost up to USD 35 million (USD $ 200.9; GBP).

In June 2023, Antony Gewo threw the case against age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times, and decided that it was “essentially true” that Mr. Roberts-Smith had murdered other soldiers unarmed Afghan prisoners and civilians and bullying.

He also found that Mr. Roberts-Smith had lied to his misconduct and threatened to cover up witnesses.

Additional accusations that he had beaten his lover, threatened a peer and committed two more murders were not demonstrated according to the “balance of the probabilities” that were necessary in civil cases.

The “heart” of the appeal procedure was that Justice did not give Mr. Roberts-Smith's innocence enough weight, said SC.

There is a legal principle according to which the judges have to proceed carefully if they deal with civil cases that contain serious allegations and make results that have serious consequences.

Mr. Walker argued that the evidence provided by the newspapers had not passed the required standard.

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