Another Australian soldier has testified he watched Ben Roberts-Smith machine-gun an unarmed disabled man to death in Afghanistan, telling the federal court he turned to a comrade immediately after the shooting and said: “Did we just witness an execution?”
In further evidence before the federal court about an SAS mission on a compound called Whiskey 108, the soldier, anonymised before the court as Person 24, said he saw Roberts-Smith throw the man to the ground and “immediately put a machine gun burst into his back”.
Person 24, a former SAS soldier and veteran of several tours of Afghanistan, was subpoenaed by three newspapers to give evidence in Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial.
Roberts-Smith is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times for defamation over reports he alleges portray him as committing war crimes, including murder.
The newspapers are pleading a defence of truth. Roberts-Smith denies all wrongdoing, including the newspaper’s claims regarding Whiskey 108.
Giving evidence on Monday, Person 24 said his patrol had led SAS troops into the village of Kakarak, a known insurgent stronghold in southern Uruzgan province, late in the afternoon of 12 April 2009.
His six-man patrol set up a security cordon around a bombed-out compound, given the codename Whiskey 108, while other troops assaulted the compound and secured it.
After the compound was secured, Person 24 says he was standing guard outside, about two metres from another soldier, Person 14, when he saw Roberts-Smith emerge through a doorway.
Person 24 said he saw Roberts-Smith from side-on and did not see his face, but recognised him from his size, his gait, and his “physical demeanour”.
“Mr Roberts-Smith walked out of the compound … at this stage he was holding a man in his hand, it appeared he [the man] had come off the ground, he was being held by his pants or back of the shirt.”
Person 24 said it was clear the man was alive: “He was making a noise as he came out … a grunting noise.”
“He [Roberts-Smith] marched about 15 metres directly out – he dropped the man on to the ground – and immediately put a machine gun burst into his back.”
Person 24 said the machine-gun burst was “eight to 10 rounds”.
Person 24 told the court the slain man – whose identity has not been revealed in court – might have been a “medium-value target potentially” as an “IED [improvised explosive device] facilitator”. But he was not a “kill target” at the time of the mission.
“In BRS’s defence, he might have been a kill target previously.”
Person 24 said he “didn’t agree with the agenda” of some SAS soldiers who were seeking to undermine Roberts-Smith’s reputation and decorations.
“I still don’t agree with the fact BRS [Roberts-Smith] is here, under extreme duress, for killing bad dudes we went there to kill.”
Person 24 told the court after the Australian troops assaulted and secured another compound – Whiskey 109 – his patrol walked back past Whiskey 108. He said he saw the body of the man with a prosthetic leg. He saw another soldier, Person 6, remove the leg, strap it to his backpack, and take it from the battlefield.
The leg was taken back to the Australian base in Tarin Kowt and used as a macabre celebratory drinking vessel at the SAS troops’ unofficial bar, the Fat Ladies Arms. The court has been shown photographs of soldiers drinking from the leg.
Person 24 said he “didn’t have a problem” with people drinking from the war trophy prosthetic leg – “it’s black humour” – and admitted he had drunk from it. Roberts-Smith was not pictured drinking from the leg and he denied having done so in evidence last year.
Roberts-Smith does not dispute he shot and killed the man with the prosthetic leg but says the man was legitimately engaged in battle. He was extensively questioned about the Whiskey 108 mission when he gave evidence in this trial last year.
Roberts-Smith told the court he killed the man because he was a threat to Australian troops. Roberts-Smith said he saw the man carrying a weapon and running, and killed him in accordance with troops’ rules of engagement.
“He had his hand over the top of the weapon, because he was carrying it down next to his body like that … hunched over, as in, running like that with his shoulders down.”
Person 24 is the third soldier to give similar – though not identical – evidence that they saw an Australian soldier shoot an Afghan man at Whiskey 108, with two saying they believed it to be Roberts-Smith.
Other soldiers have given evidence they saw a man with a prosthetic leg who was discovered hiding in a secret tunnel inside the compound and taken into custody of Australian troops before being “marched off” by Roberts-Smith.
A soldier anonymised before the court as Person 41 previously told the court he was also standing guard outside the compound when he saw Roberts-Smith “frog-marching” an Afghan man “by the scruff of his neck”.
“He [Roberts-Smith] had his machine gun in his right arm … he then proceeded to throw the Afghan male down on to the ground. The Afghan male landed on his back. [Roberts-Smith] then reached down and grabbed him by the shoulder and flipped him on to his stomach. Then I observed him lower his machine gun and shoot approximately three to five rounds into the back of the Afghan male.
“After he’d done that, he looked up and saw me standing there, and looked at me and said ‘are we all cool, we good?’
“I just replied, ‘yeah mate, no worries’.”
Under cross-examination, Person 41 denied lying about the incident but conceded he hadn’t reported what he had allegedly seen to his commanders.
“I just wanted to keep quiet about the whole thing,” he told the court. “I was a new trooper, on my very first trip with the SAS, I just wanted to toe the line. It’s the unwritten rule – you go along with whatever happens.”
Another soldier, Person 14, who was standing next to Person 24, previously told the court the light was fading when he heard heavy footsteps to his right.
“As I turned my head to my right, there were three Australian soldiers and a black object, which was similar to a human, that was thrown to the ground.”
Person 14 said the person made a thudding, “expulsion of air” noise as they hit the ground.
“Then a soldier raised their Minimi F89 Para and fired an extended burst. It was loud, like a ‘BRRRRRT’ for one second.
“That person turned and walked away out of sight back into Whiskey 108.”
Person 14 said he said to another soldier: “What the hell what that?” He said he did not recognise the soldier who fired at the time.
But Person 14 said the soldier who shot the man was wearing a distinctive new camouflage paint, worn by only one SAS patrol in action that day, the five-man team of which Roberts-Smith was a member.
Person 14 told the court that, at the conclusion of the mission, he saw Roberts-Smith carrying the distinctive Minimi weapon at the troops’ lay-up point.
“I saw who had the Para Minimi [machine gun],” he said. “It was Ben Roberts-Smith.”
Under cross-examination, Arthur Moses SC, acting for Roberts-Smith accused Person 24 of giving false evidence.
“I wouldn’t, in a court of law, give that evidence if it was false; I’ve just sworn an oath, Mr Moses,” Person 24 replied.
“You are here to tell a story?”
“I am here to tell the truth, Mr Moses, and you are getting the truth.”
Person 24 was medically discharged from the SAS. He said prior to leaving the military, the mission at Whiskey 108 was the subject of “much talk” within the regiment.
“But it has always been veiled, very veiled,” he said. “It’s something people didn’t want to talk about,” he said.
Moses raised the question of whether Person 14 may have perjured himself last month when he told the court he had only spoken with his wife and his lawyer over a weekend when he was in the middle of giving evidence.
Person 24 told the court on Monday he phoned Person 14 after Person 14’s first day in the witness box “to see how he was going”, though said they didn’t discuss his evidence. Person 14 reportedly said it was “tough” and that Moses “went at him like a rabid dog” during cross-examination.
Person 24 remains in the witness box. The trial, before Justice Anthony Besanko, continues.
