Overview
- Roberts-Smith, who was charged on April 7, won bail Friday after the judge said a trial was likely years away.
- Bail terms include a A$250,000 surety, a surrendered passport, tight travel limits, no contact with prosecution witnesses, police check-ins three times a week, and inspections or limits on his devices.
- He faces five counts of war‑crime murder over alleged killings of five unarmed Afghans in Uruzgan between 2009 and 2012, with court filings saying he shot two men and directed the deaths of three others at Kakarak, Darwan and Syahchow.
- Prosecutors called the case gravely serious and said they have eyewitnesses to each killing and forensic signs on victims’ wrists consistent with being handcuffed, and they flagged possible further charges.
- The charges stem from a joint AFP–Office of the Special Investigator probe launched in 2021 and follow a civil defamation loss in 2023 that found some allegations substantially true on a lower standard, though Roberts-Smith denies all criminal wrongdoing.