First war crime prosecution in Australia: Decorated soldier executed unarmed man in Afghanistan

Published 26 March 2023
- By Editorial Staff
Just before the soldier shoots the unarmed man.

A former soldier of the elite Australian SAS regiment, now aged 41, was recently arrested in the state of New South Wales for shooting dead an unarmed wounded 20-year-old man in Afghanistan in 2012.

The execution was revealed in March 2020 during a broadcast of ABC’s “Four Corners”, where a video sequence documents how the suspected soldier shoots the victim who is already on the ground, injured after first having been attacked by military dogs.

Left: the father of the executed 20-year-old. Right: the suspected soldier. Photo: ABC Australia

The arrest and subsequent prosecution could, according to the ABC, mark a break in the trend not only in Australia, but throughout the West, of prosecuting soldiers for war crimes in different parts of the world.

The legislation invoked is the Commonwealth Criminal Code and has nothing to do with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. If convicted, the man faces lifetime imprisonment.

 

Parts of the execution can be seen in the video above. NOTE! Sensitive viewers are warned.