A former elite soldier has told the Federal Court he saw war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith drop a man to the ground in Afghanistan and machine-gun him in the back, prompting him to turn to a fellow soldier and ask if they had just witnessed an execution.
Person 24, a former Special Air Service soldier, gave evidence in Mr Roberts-Smith’s defamation case on Monday that he saw the decorated former soldier march out of a compound in Afghanistan in 2009 holding an Afghan man by his shirt or pants. He believed the man was alive because he was making a noise like a grunting sound, he said.
Ben Roberts-Smith outside the Federal Court earlier this year.Credit:James Alcock
Mr Roberts-Smith dropped the man to the ground, Person 24 said, and immediately fired eight to ten rounds into his back.
Person 24, whose name cannot be revealed for national security reasons, said he turned to another soldier in his patrol, Person 14, and said: “Did we just witness an execution?”
Person 14 has previously told the court that he saw three Australian soldiers on that day with “a black object which was … similar to a human”. The object was thrown to the ground, Person 14 said in February, before one soldier raised a “distinctive” machine gun known as an F89 Para Minimi and fired “an extended burst”.
Person 14, who is still serving in the SAS, told the court that he later discovered that Mr Roberts-Smith was carrying a machine gun matching that description.
“I wouldn’t be in a court of law giving that evidence if it was false. I’ve just sworn an oath.”
Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times for defamation over a series of articles in 2018 that he says portray him as a war criminal.
Person 24 was called this week to give evidence for the newspapers about alleged events at a compound in Afghanistan dubbed Whiskey 108, about which a number of current and former SAS soldiers have given evidence.
The media outlets are seeking to rely on a defence of truth and allege Mr Roberts-Smith committed or was involved in six murders of Afghans under the control of Australian troops, when they cannot be killed under the rules of engagement. Mr Roberts-Smith has said any killings were carried out lawfully in the heat of battle.
Mr Roberts-Smith’s barrister, Arthur Moses, SC, put it to Person 24 that his evidence about the alleged killing was false.
“I wouldn’t be in a court of law giving that evidence if it was false. I’ve just sworn an oath, Mr Moses,” Person 24 replied. He said the Afghan man killed by Mr Roberts-Smith had a prosthetic leg, which was removed from the body by another soldier, Person 6.
Under cross-examination by Mr Moses, he agreed that he was in regular contact with Person 14. He was aware that Person 14 had given evidence in the case and said that he “gave him a welfare call on the night he was in here” in court for the first time.
“I just asked him how he was going; he was all right. He said it was tough. He mentioned that you went at him like a rabid dog,” he told Mr Moses. He said that he spoke to Person 14 again when he completed his evidence and “he was really, really relieved to be out of here”.
Person 24 told the court he had also witnessed a soldier known as Person 5, the commander of Mr Roberts-Smith’s troop, coming to the door of his patrol room before the Whiskey 108 mission “in a jovial manner dancing a bit of a jig”. He said Person 5 said: “We are going to blood the rookie”.
He understood that to mean that “they were going to facilitate or put [a soldier known as Person 4] in a position where he could get a kill under his name”, Person 24 said.
He said he witnessed Person 5 “screaming” at Person 4 to join him inside Whiskey 108 in 2009.
A serving SAS soldier dubbed Person 41 has previously told the court that he witnessed Mr Roberts-Smith grabbing an Afghan man inside that compound, kneeling him in front of Person 4 and directing him to shoot the man.
The trial continues.
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