Ben Roberts-Smith’s 2GB interview fact-checked

October 22, 2026 — 1:16pm

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Radio host Ben Fordham put a lot of questions to alleged war criminal and former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith during his interview on radio 2GB on Thursday, but he did not challenge any of the answers over the 2½ hours. Here are some of the facts.

On the murder allegations

Roberts-Smith: “One of the things that the media really did well, unfortunately, was try and convince them that civilians had been killed ... that has actually, in no way, ever been proven.”

Fact: The judge in the defamation case, Justice Anthony Besanko, did find that one victim in particular, Ali Jan, was a civilian. Ali Jan, the judge found, cultivated crops. He had some cattle and also sold wood. He was married with children. He was not connected to the Taliban. The evidence of Afghan witness Mohammed Hanifa on this was accepted by the judge.

Besanko’s findings explicitly state that Roberts-Smith “murdered an unarmed and defenceless Afghan civilian by kicking him off a cliff and procuring the soldiers under his command to shoot him”.

Ben Roberts-Smith’s big publicity blitz is aimed at an audience of 12

Hugh RimintonJournalist and broadcaster

Journalist and broadcaster

The other three people Roberts-Smith was found to have murdered were very likely members of the Taliban – a fact acknowledged in the original reporting. The key question was always whether they were unarmed, under control and out of action at the time they were killed, or still posing a threat.

Besanko’s finding, which backed the media reporting, was that three of Roberts-Smith’s victims were what the Australian military called “PUCs”, or Persons Under Control. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention “explicitly prohibits violence to life and person, cruel treatment, torture, and murder of persons who are taking no active part in hostilities, including those placed under detention or control”.

Asked about this during his........

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