Afghan with prosthetic leg ‘marched off’ by Ben Roberts-Smith before being found dead, court hears

Ben Roberts-Smith outside the federal court in Sydney, where a former comrade, Person 40, has been giving evidence in his defamation trial. Photograph: Richard Milnes/Rex/Shutterstock

A disabled man found hiding in a tunnel during a raid on an Afghan village compound was led away by Ben Roberts-Smith and another soldier before he was later found dead from gunshot wounds outside, a serving member of the SAS told the federal court.

The testimony relates to a raid by Australian SAS troops on a compound called Whiskey 108, in the village of Kakarak in Uruzgan province on 12 April 2009, the site of two key allegations made by newspapers in their defence to Roberts-Smith’s defamation claim: that he was involved in the execution of two unarmed men found in the compound.