Editor TLN
June 1 () –
Australian justice has dismissed a lawsuit brought by war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith against three newspapers that described him as a war criminal after a judge ruled there was “significant” evidence that the allegations were true.
Roberts-Smith had sued the newspapers ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’, ‘The Age’ and ‘The Canberra Times’, as well as three journalists, for a series of articles published in 2018 and which, according to the ex-soldier, contained false information about war crimes committed by the Special Air Service Regiment in Afghanistan and several cases of sexist violence against women in Canberra, the Australian capital.
Thus, Judge Anthony Besanko has indicated that the publications establish “substantial truth” about these accusations, which include the forced execution of people in Afghanistan, and has requested that the case be archived.
Some of the most serious accusations are related to the death of six Afghans who were in custody in 2012, as reported by the ABC television network.
For his part, journalist Chris Masters has pointed out that the case will go down in history as a “great victory” for the media industry. “I’m not here as a loser, but I don’t think anyone will come out of this case feeling exhilarated and triumphant,” he said.
