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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Ben Doherty

Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: witness expected to deny wrongdoing in killing of Afghan villager

Ben Roberts-Smith Ali Jan Age Anthony Besanko Arthur Moses SC Hekmatullah SAS Darwan
Ben Roberts-Smith
The Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial before Justice Anthony Besanko is expected to run several more weeks. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

An Australian soldier alleged by three newspapers to have participated with Ben Roberts-Smith in the “joint criminal enterprise” of murdering an Afghan villager named Ali Jan is set to appear in the federal court this week as a witness for Roberts-Smith in his defamation action against the newspapers.

Anonymised before the court as Person 11, the SAS’s soldier evidence will be critical to Roberts-Smith’s case over the events in the village of Darwan on 11 September 2012, when Roberts-Smith is alleged, by the newspapers in their defence, to have kicked a handcuffed Ali Jan off a cliff before ordering him shot.

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