During a raid on a Taliban compound, special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith grabbed an unarmed, older Afghan male by the scruff of his shirt, forced him to kneel and uttered two words to a colleague.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"Shoot him."
That's according to the testimony of a serving special forces soldier, who on Wednesday said he witnessed the incident in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province in 2009.
He also alleged Mr Roberts-Smith asked "we cool?" after the latter executed a second man.
Mr Roberts-Smith, one of a handful of Australian recipients of the Victoria Cross since 1970, flatly denies both execution claims, suggesting they stem from envious associates spiteful that he was awarded the VC.
The now-retired SAS corporal, 43, is suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times, alleging he was unlawfully defamed by allegations he committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The newspapers have pleaded a truth defence.
After a six-month hiatus caused by COVID-19 complications, the Federal Court case's trial resumed on Wednesday, hearing from the serving soldier.
Codenamed Person 41, he detailed parts of a 2009 mission to a Taliban compound nicknamed Whiskey 108 in Uruzgan province.
At one point, he said he was in a courtyard where Mr Roberts-Smith and another soldier dubbed Person Four were standing near a squatting, older Afghan male.
The two soldiers asked to use Person 41's suppressor, something the witness found "strange", but he complied, only to watch Person Four fit the item to his gun and walk towards the Afghan.
Mr Roberts-Smith then grabbed the Afghan man by his shirt and kicked his legs out to force him to kneel before Person Four, the witness said.
"RS pointed to the Afghan and said 'shoot him' and stepped to the side," Person 41 said on Wednesday.
The witness, not wishing to see "what was about to happen", said he stepped back into a room he'd been searching and heard a single, suppressed shot from an M4 carbine rifle.
He waited another "15 or so seconds" before re-entering the courtyard, where only Person Four and "a dead Afghan at his feet" remained.
Minutes later, while walking outside the courtyard, Person 41 said he saw Mr Roberts-Smith five metres away holding a machine gun in his right hand and the scruff of another Afghan's collar in his left.
The local man was thrown to the ground, flipped over and shot three to five times by Mr Roberts-Smith, the witness said.
"After he has done that, he looked up and saw me standing there and said 'we cool?'" Person 41 said.
"I said 'Yeah, mate, no worries'."
Person 41 said he didn't tell anyone else about the incident until 2019, citing an "unwritten rule (that) you just go along with whatever happens".
Under cross-examination, he said he hadn't had any issues with Mr Roberts-Smith and "absolutely" agreed he was a brave, good soldier who could be relied upon to "have your back".
Mr Roberts-Smith has rubbished the execution suggestions, saying that after clearing the building, he spotted and fired two rounds at an insurgent holding a bolt-action rifle.
In June, he labelled the idea he carried the man later found to have a prosthetic leg "ridiculous".
A claim the man was ever a "person under control" was "so far from the truth it's not funny ... it's ridiculous," Mr Roberts-Smith testified.
The prosthetic leg was subsequently used as a drinking vessel at the "Fat Ladies Arms", the SAS pub in Afghanistan, the court has been told.
Person 41 is the first of about two dozen Australian-based witnesses to be called by the newspapers.
His cross-examination is due to resume on Thursday.
A recording of Wednesday's hearing, with national security information removed, is due to be uploaded to the court's YouTube channel by Thursday afternoon.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Open Arms 1800 011 046
Australian Associated Press
