“Did we just witness an execution?”: New details in Ben Roberts-Smith trial
A former SAS soldier has told a Sydney court that he saw Ben Roberts-Smith throw an unarmed Afghan prisoner on the ground before opening fire on the man’s back.
The witness, codenamed Person 24, told the Federal Court that right after the event, he turned to another soldier referred to as Person 14.
“Did we just witness an execution?” he recalled asking Person 14.
Mr Roberts-Smith has strenuously denied the allegation, having said the person he killed during that 2009 mission - dubbed Whiskey 108 - was an insurgent, and that it was within the rules of engagement.
However, Person 24 said the unarmed prisoner had a prosthetic leg, and that he later saw another colleague pack it into his backpack after the man was executed.
He earlier told the court that he watched the Victoria Cross recipient march out of the compound carrying the man in his arms, parallel to the ground.
“It appeared he had come off his feet,” Person 24 said, and was held either by his pants or the back of his shirt.
“(Mr Roberts-Smith) marched approximately 15 metres, directly out from that entrance, dropped the man on the ground and immediately began with a machine gun burst into his back.”
The witness recalled watching Mr Roberts-Smith shoot eight to ten rounds of ammunition into the prisoner, who was making a “grunting noise”, and that he couldn’t have missed seeing it as it was “right in my field of view”.
He said he felt Mr Roberts-Smith had been treated unfairly and only agreed to testify because of what happened to his friend, referred to as Person Four.
Person 24 alleged a patrol commander known as Person Five boasted that “we’re going to blood the rookie” at Australia’s base in Tarin Kowt.
The court previously heard that Person Four, as a young and inexperienced soldier, was ordered to execute a prisoner to “get a kill under his name”.
Person 24, who was medically discharged from the army in 2017, said the alleged killing negatively impacted Person Four over time and denied lying about evidence.
Monday’s testimony was the latest in the defamation trial Mr Roberts-Smith launched against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times over reports he allegedly committed war crimes while serving in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2012.
It continues before Justice Anthony Besanko.
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