Australian Federal Police arrested Ben Roberts-Smith, 47, at Sydney Airport. He was charged with five counts of war crimes in connection with the killing of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
The maximum penalty for each charge is life imprisonment. The AFP said he had been denied bail and would appear in court for a bail hearing on Wednesday.
Roberts-Smith, hailed as a national hero after being awarded several top military honours including the Victoria Cross, has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing during his service since 2018.
Among the accusations reported were that Roberts-Smith shot dead an unarmed Afghan teenager and kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff before ordering him to be shot dead. The Federal Court ruled in 2023 that four of six murder accusations against him were proven.
A report in 2020 found credible evidence that members of the SAS killed dozens of unarmed prisoners during the Afghan war. An investigation into Roberts-Smith by federal police and the Office of the Special Investigator, set up to examine allegations of war crimes by ADF members in Afghanistan, was opened in 2021.
Ross Barnett, director of investigations at the OSI, said the process was complex because authorities were unable to go to Afghanistan to see the alleged crime scenes. The joint OSI-AFP has held 53 investigations involving allegations of war crimes by ADF members in Afghanistan, with 10 ongoing. Another former special forces soldier is due to face trial for war crime murder next February.
Amnesty International said Roberts-Smith’s arrest was a “critical step toward global justice and accountability efforts”.