SYDNEY
\nOne of Australia\u2019s most decorated soldiers on Friday lost a legal bid to overturn bombshell court findings that implicated him in war crimes while serving in Afghanistan.
\nFormer SAS commando Ben Roberts-Smith has been fighting to salvage his tattered reputation since 2018, when newspapers unearthed allegations he took part in the murder of unarmed Afghan prisoners.
\nHis multi-million dollar bid to sue three Australian newspapers for defamation failed in 2023, with a judge ruling the bulk of the journalists\u2019 claims were \u201csubstantially true\u201d.
\nThe 46-year-old suffered another setback on Friday, when Australia\u2019s Federal Court dismissed his appeal. Justice Nye Perram withheld the reasons for the decision, saying there were national security implications the government must consider before they are released.
\nA published summary said there was sufficient evidence to support findings Roberts-Smith had \u201cmurdered four Afghan men\u201d. Roberts-Smith said he would now fight to clear his name in Australia\u2019s High Court \u2014 his last avenue of legal appeal.
\n\u201cI continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,\u201d he told local media in a statement. \u201cWe will immediately seek to challenge this judgement in the High Court of Australia.\u201d
\nRoberts-Smith argued in his appeal that the judge \u201cerred\u201d in the way he assessed some of the evidence.
\nPerth-born Roberts-Smith had been Australia\u2019s most famous and distinguished living soldier.
\nDecorated soldier\u2013He won the Victoria Cross \u2014 Australia\u2019s highest military honour \u2014 for \u201cconspicuous gallantry\u201d in Afghanistan while on the hunt for a senior Taliban commander.
\nThe Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times shredded this reputation with a series of reports in 2018. The papers reported Roberts-Smith had kicked an unarmed Afghan civilian off a cliff and ordered subordinates to shoot him. He was also said to have taken part in the machine-gunning of a man with a prosthetic leg, which was later brought back to an army bar and used as a drinking vessel.
\nThe 2023 court ruling ultimately implicated Roberts-Smith in the murder of four unarmed Afghan prisoners. Civil court matters such as defamation have a lower standard of proof than criminal trials. Roberts-Smith has not faced criminal charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY One of Australia\u2019s most decorated soldiers on Friday lost a legal bid to overturn bombshell court findings that implicated him in war crimes while serving in Afghanistan. Former SAS commando Ben Roberts-Smith has been fighting to salvage his tattered reputation since 2018, when newspapers unearthed allegations he took part in the murder of unarmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-479018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n