Former Australian soldier charged with 5 war crime murders in Afghanistan

Key Points:

• A former Australian soldier has been charged with war crimes for allegedly killing five unarmed Afghans while serving in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, with the individual expected to appear in a Sydney court.
• This soldier is the second Australian veteran from the Afghanistan campaign to face war crime charges, following Oliver Schulz, who pleaded not guilty to murdering an Afghan man in 2012.
• The charges allege the victims were unarmed, detained, and under Australian Defense Force (ADF) control when killed, with accusations that the accused either directly shot the victims or ordered subordinate soldiers to do so.
• These allegations stem from a 2020 military report that found evidence of unlawful killings by elite Australian SAS and commando troops, involving 39 Afghan noncombatants.
• Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett emphasized that the alleged conduct involves only a small section of the ADF, with the majority of personnel serving honorably, while the Office of the Special Investigator continues to work on related war crime investigations.