Years after Ben Roberts won the decoration, he got involved in a particularly serious incident • Suspected of murdering two cold-blooded Afghans • Roberts denies allegations

• Afghanistan (illustrative image, photographers have no connection to the news) // Photo: Reuters

Former Army man Ben Roberts Smith won the Victoria Cross and is considered the Australian soldier and most decorated soldier among the coalition forces in Afghanistan. He served in the Australian Army from 1996 to 2013 and is now also suspected of murdering or at least killing two helpless Afghans in the country's long war.

The main incident in which Roberts was suspected in 2012 took place in Darwin village, so he is alleged to have kicked an Afghan prisoner named Ali Jaan across the cliff and killed him. At that point the prisoner was handcuffed and could not resist. The second case in which the fighter was suspected happened in 2009, when he killed an innocent man in a southern country village.

The investigation into the issue began in 2017 after Australian journalist Chris Masters wrote a book called 'Without a Front Line', in which much evidence was cited by the actions of the Afghan Special Forces in Afghanistan, which he called war crimes. Since then, human rights organizations have come into the picture, which have pushed the investigation over the years. Following the book, the man was questioned and now that the Australian Federal Police Investigative Team has been able to find testimony from the unit's colleagues at least on the second case, Ben Roberts has been questioned in a warning.

The warrior himself completely denies the charges against him. It is also important to note that the incident in 2012 took place as part of a combat raid of the force to the village and fighting with Taliban. However, at least according to the warrior's critics, the two incidents mentioned are a war crime or at least a killing.

The issue of Afghanistan's special forces operations is not on the agenda in both Australia and the rest of the British Commonwealth, and crosses the line between the supporters of the fighters who mention that they have often acted at the risk of extreme life and hard fighting and among critics who claim that the human photographer must also fight. An investigation by Australian Supreme Court Judge Paul Burton has shown that there are suspicions of Australian war fighters in Afghanistan.