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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Ben Doherty

Ben Roberts-Smith ‘prepared to lie under oath’, newspapers’ lawyer tells defamation trial

Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney, Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
Ben Roberts-Smith arrives at the federal court in Sydney on Tuesday. His long-running defamation case is hearing closing submissions. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Ben Roberts-Smith was “prepared to lie under oath” in his defamation trial, evidence of his “consciousness of guilt”, lawyers for the newspapers he is suing have told the federal court, accusing him of being the “architect or the knowing beneficiary of … dishonest collusion”.

Roberts-Smith’s long-running defamation case is hearing concluding submissions, and lawyers for the newspapers, who have alleged he committed war crimes in Afghanistan while serving in the SAS, have said the Victoria Cross recipient lied, and colluded with other witnesses in an attempt to bolster his alleged untruth, in relation to matters relevant to an allegation of murder.

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