Overview

• Australia’s High Court on Thursday refused special leave to appeal the Full Court ruling that upheld Justice Anthony Besanko’s 2023 judgment against Ben Roberts‑Smith.
• The decision preserves findings, to the civil standard, that he murdered four unarmed Afghan men, including a man with a prosthetic leg at the Whiskey 108 compound.
• The High Court ordered Roberts‑Smith to pay the newspapers’ legal costs for the failed application, in addition to a lump‑sum contribution to Nine’s appeal costs to be negotiated or set by a registrar.
• Appeal judges earlier rejected Nine’s bid for indemnity costs and highlighted three eyewitnesses to a Whiskey 108 killing, saying Roberts‑Smith must have known key imputations were substantially true.
• Roberts‑Smith continues to deny the allegations and has not been charged with any criminal offence.