Ten years after war crimes investigations began, pressure builds for veterans to be charged or cleared

Next month will mark 10 years since the start of one of the most controversial legal steps in Australian history: the investigations into war crimes allegations against Ben Roberts-Smith and other members of the special forces who fought in Afghanistan.

As the anniversary approaches, opponents are stepping up pressure to either charge the ex-soldiers or wind up an inquiry that will have cost $318 million by the end of this financial year.

“Bring the charges so our men can defend themselves or tell them they are cleared and stop wasting taxpayers’ money,” an army veteran and NSW Nationals MP, Michael Kemp, told The Nightly.

The investigations have taken so long — the army ended combat missions in Afghanistan 12 years ago — that the barrister in charge, Mark Weinberg, KC, recently retired after delivering charges against only one soldier, which won’t be heard until 2027.

Shutting down

Facing criticism from veterans and their supporters, the Federal agency pursuing the ex-soldiers, the Office of the Special Investigator, appears to be shutting down investigations that have little success of delivering convictions.

Last week the agency disclosed the number of investigations had been cut to 13 from the 53 it started with in 2021.

Assuming those investigations cover 13 people, the average bill for the Federal Government per active suspect is now $24 million — and may be among the most expensive in Australian history.

A spokesperson for the agency acknowledged the time taken for investigations is difficult for suspects and other veterans.

“The OSI and AFP joint investigations are being conducted as expeditiously as possible, cognisant of the potential impact on the welfare of those involved and the broader Defence community,” a spokeswoman told The Nightly.

One of the veterans pursued by the agency may go public this week.

An SAS soldier from the unit that fought in the 2010 Battle of Tizak, for which Ben Roberts-Smith was awarded the Victoria Cross, is scheduled to give an interview to Sydney radio broadcaster Ben Fordham on Wednesday morning.

The ex-soldier, an expert dog handler known only as Horse, was told in 2020 that he was under investigation and there was enough evidence to refer charges to the Australian Federal Police.

“Then, for more than five years, there was nothing,” Mr Kemp told the NSW Parliament last week. “Imagine that stress. Only after following it up himself did he finally receive a response, in December 2025, confirming that he was no longer under investigation.”

(The Office of the Special Investigator was created in 2021, making it unclear who told “Horse” he could be referred to the police.)

‘Defamed’

Critics of the pace of investigations include Greg Warren, a Labor MP in the NSW Parliament who represents many soldiers in his electorate of Campbelltown.

“It has gone on for too long and needs to be resolved,” he said last week. “Many fellow veterans have been unfairly treated and defamed.”

Greens Senator David Shoebridge last week confronted the public servant overseeing the investigations, OSI director-general Chris Moraitis during a parliamentary hearing.

“As a result of your work, the DPP (the Director of Public Prosecutions) has commenced one prosecution, and that’s what the Australian public have as a result of a quarter of a billion dollars of funding that’s come to your office,” he said. “That’s the takeaway metric, isn’t it?”

“No,” Mr Moraitis replied. “The takeaway metric is this: we commenced in 2021, we set up an agency from scratch and we’ve investigated 53 matters. Of those, 39 have been finalised to the best of our efforts and are subject to no further investigation unless something else emerges.

“And we have 13 matters which are actively under consideration: we’re actually pursuing, preparing and finalising briefs of evidence for consideration by the DPP and, ultimately, for the consent of the Attorney-General. That’s not an insignificant amount of work done in that period.”

Chasing BRS

Mr Roberts-Smith, a 47-year-old former corporal accused of executing prisoners in 2009 and 2012, is likely among the last of the veterans being pursued by the Government.

Investigative journalist Nick McKenzie said in 2021 there were police “living in his apartment block under assumed identities”.

Mr Roberts-Smith, who has kept a low profile since losing his defamation case against Nine Entertainment in 2025, hasn’t been notified by the Office of Special Investigator that he is not under investigation.

At midnight Monday legal documents became public that revealed Nine paid $700,000 to a witness who had turned against the company shortly before the start of a court appeal by Mr Roberts-Smith.

The witness, a former girlfriend of the famous veteran, threatened to sue Nine and Mr McKenzie after her relationship with them soured. After providing information about Mr Roberts-Smith and speaking to Mr McKenzie regularly, she blocked calls and emails from him and his lawyers “because I was upset with and did not want to deal with them”, she said in an affidavit.

To avoid being sued, Nine agreed to pay $700,000, as long as she promised to keep the deal confidential. The deal, which was previously reported in The Nightly and on Sky News, became public after Nine failed to convince a judge to keep it private 50 years.

The nine-page contract was signed by the woman, whose name remains secret, Mr McKenzie and Tory Maguire, the executive in charge of Nine’s newspapers. It states the woman must repay the money within two weeks if she discloses publicly how much she was paid and other information.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s lawyers told the Federal Court the only recent case where a 50-year suppression order was issued was to protect a person subjected to serious sexual assault as a child.

On Tuesday there appeared to be no mention of the payment on the Sydney Morning Herald or The Age websites, the Nine newspapers that led coverage of the case.

A Nine spokesman said the agreement did not stop the witness giving evidence in court.

“We make no apology for our commitment to journalism that uncovers the truth about criminal actions that would otherwise have never come to light,” he said.