Australia’s most decorated war hero, Ben Roberts-Smith VC, is a mountain of a man. But today, he has been cut down to size.

Arriving at Sydney airport this morning on a flight from Queensland, Roberts-Smith was met by Australian Federal police officers, who escorted him to a car waiting on the tarmac. He was arrested, handcuffed and taken into custody in front of hundreds of onlookers watching from the airport terminal.

If proven beyond reasonable doubt, not only he will be besmirched, but so will Australia’s SAS regiment

If proven beyond reasonable doubt, not only he will be besmirched, but so will Australia’s SAS regiment

Roberts-Smith is expected to be charged later today on five counts of the war crime of murder, arising from his tours of duty in Afghanistan as a corporal in Australia’s elite Special Air Service regiment. Conviction on any one count carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

His alleged war crimes were uncovered by a detailed investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s Age newspaper. They related to alleged incidents of cold-blooded executions of captured Afghans either by Roberts-Smith himself, or by other soldiers under his........

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