Ex-SAS soldier testifies to atrocities committed in Afghanistan

Soldier kicked unarmed Afghan man off cliff earlier than ordering him shot – witness

An Australian particular forces soldier has testified to atrocities dedicated by his comrade as a part of an unfolding defamation lawsuit in opposition to a number of Australian media shops. Ben Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked an unarmed, handcuffed man off a cliff earlier than ordering his subordinates to complete him off, a former colleague listed in court docket data as “Individual 4” revealed in court docket on Monday.

“I noticed the person’s face strike a big rock and maintain a severe damage. It knocked out quite a lot of his tooth together with his entrance tooth,” the unnamed SAS fighter informed a federal court docket after describing how Roberts-Smith allegedly kicked the unarmed man off a cliff. He in the end ordered his underlings to pull the “severely injured” man underneath a tree and shoot him lifeless, the person testified.

The grisly execution allegedly came about within the village of Darwan on September 11, 2012 following a failed try and seek out a “rogue Afghan soldier” named Hekmatullah who had supposedly killed three Australians. Because the SAS got here up empty-handed, they discovered the alleged sufferer, a visiting farmer named Ali Jan, and arrested him. Roberts-Smith and one other servicemember manhandled him down a cliff, the place he fell and hit a “giant rock,” sustaining “severe facial damage,” in response to Individual 4.

Individual 4 heard capturing and circled to see the Afghan farmer had been killed; Roberts-Smith then allegedly requested the witness for his digicam so as to {photograph} the lifeless man with a kind of radio utilized by Afghan insurgents to speak – a radio Individual 4 claimed the farmer had not been carrying “to [his] information” however had come from one other man killed by Roberts-Smith beforehand.

The narrative emerged as Roberts-Smith has sued a number of Australian media shops, together with the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Canberra Occasions. The previous soldier accused the media of defaming him with wrongful accusations of warfare crimes and different acts of wrongdoing – from bullying and home violence to homicide.

Roberts-Smith has denied all prices. “There was no cliff…there was no kick,” he informed the court docket final July, insisting the lifeless man had been an enemy “spotter” killed for professional causes. Individual 4, who has been challenged relating to his refusal to testify about one other incident wherein he was seen “standing over a lifeless Afghan prisoner” after one other witness heard pictures fired, shall be cross-examined on Tuesday.

An ongoing investigation into warfare crimes allegedly dedicated by Australian troopers in Afghanistan, based mostly on the Brereton report, which discovered sufficient “credible data” to implicate 25 Australian Protection Power members within the unlawful killing of 39 Afghan people, has been delayed following the collapse of the Afghan authorities. Whereas the Taliban could possibly be fairly anticipated to cooperate with such an inquiry, the reluctance of different nations to acknowledge the Islamic militant group as a professional governing physique is predicted to hinder the proceedings.

(RT.com)