Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, has been arrested at Sydney airport in relation to alleged war crimes.
Roberts-Smith was due to face court in Sydney on Tuesday. The Victoria Cross recipient has previously been accused in a defamation suit of murdering unarmed civilians while serving in the Australian SAS in Afghanistan.
Roberts-Smith, once lionised as the country’s most decorated Afghanistan veteran, attempted to sue three newspapers over allegations he committed war crimes, murdered unarmed civilians and bullied his comrades.
In a long-running and expensive defamation trial, he lost, with a judge finding to the civil standard of the “balance of probabilities” that he committed four murders while serving in the Australian military.
Roberts-Smith appealed to the full bench of the federal court but lost, and the high court refused to hear a further appeal.
Guardian Australia contacted the offices of the attorney general and the special investigator for comment on Tuesday. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, refused to comment, given the matter would be before the courts.