Former Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith denies committing war crimes in Afghanistan: ‘Proud of my service’

NewsWorldAustralasiaFormer Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith denies committing war crimes in Afghanistan: ‘Proud of my service’Ben Roberts-Smith, freed this week on bail, is charged with five counts of war crimes over the alleged murder of five unarmed Afghan civilians ⁠between 2009 and 2012Reuters Sunday 19 April 2026 06:15 BSTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popover{"translations":{"comments":"Go to comments","share":"Share","copyLink":"Copy link","bookmark":"Bookmark","removeBookmark":"Remove bookmark"},"showComments":true,"showBookmark":true,"articleId":"b2960497","articleMeta":{"url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-ben-roberts-smith-war-crimes-afghanistan-b2960497.html","title":"Former Australian soldier denies committing war crimes in Afghanistan"}}CloseAustralia's most-decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith arrested at Sydney airportOn The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly dispatch from our international correspondentsGet a weekly international news dispatchEmail*SIGN UPI would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice{"className":"sc-1ge0fwe-0","newsletterData":{"regSourceNewsletter":"IND_On_The_Ground_Newsletter","regTitle":"On The Ground","subscriptionGroup":"on_the_ground","subscriptionGroupId":"14806361-6435-4d19-b06e-05326605fb01","pathPrefix":["/news/world/europe","/news/world/middle-east","/news/world/australasia","/news/world/africa","/asia"],"associatedAuthors":["Bel Trew","Sam Kiley"],"title":"On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents","mobileTitle":"Get a weekly international news dispatch","lengthenedMobileTitle":"Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents","imageSrc":"https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/images/newsletters/onTheGround1_1.png","newsletterKey":"receiveOnTheGround","regSourceSect...