Posted on 04/08/2026 5:00:00 PM PDT by naturalman1975
Former SAS soldiers warn the prolonged war crimes investigation into Ben Roberts-Smith threatens to create life or death hesitation for troops in combat situations.
The father of an Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan has questioned why a dedicated team of investigators has spent six years building a case against Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith while his son’s killer remains free.
It comes as former SAS soldiers warn the Office of the Special Investigator’s (OSI) prolonged investigation into alleged war crimes is causing mental health issues to military families and creating life or death issues for soldiers in combat.
Hugh Poate’s son Robert was one of three Australians killed in Afghanistan by rogue Afghan soldier Hekmatullah while they were playing cards at a forward operating base near Tarin Kowt in 2012.
He was eventually captured but released after the Taliban recaptured Kabul.
One of the five war crimes – murder that Roberts-Smith is alleged to have carried out was the shooting of a shepherd on the day he was pursuing Hekmatullah for killing the three Diggers.
“It shows the scales of justice are totally unbalanced,” Mr Poate said.
“They’ve spent ten years and hundreds of millions, determined to find enough evidence to arrest Ben for allegedly murdering three Afghans, but successive governments have taken no action at all to capture Hekmatullah and those who proudly confessed in the Afghan Supreme Court to murdering three Australian soldiers. My son was one of them.”
Roberts-Smith’s carefully orchestrated arrest in front of select media as he flew into Sydney after the Easter holidays with his partner and twin teenage daughters has dismayed many in the SAS veteran community who see it as the latest in a prolonged campaign of harassment.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
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I’d be very interested in reading the results of a thorough investigation of the “investigators” of Ben Roberts-Smith. I sense the slime of stereotypical leftists (low IQ, high ego, and lots of jealousy of those who can actually do things).
Yep this has the stench of the leftist government all over it. Albanese is awful l can’t believe they put that punk back in.
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