Former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has successfully varied his bail to attend the opening of the Anzac Hall at the
Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
However he has not been allowed to go to a military graduation parade and afterparty north of Sydney due to concerns he might interact with another alleged war criminal, Oliver Schulz, while there.
Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested in April and charged with murdering or ordering the murders of five unarmed detainees while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
In a statement in April, Roberts-Smith said he categorically denied all allegations against him and that he had “always acted within my values, within my training and within the rules of engagement”.
He appeared before Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Tuesday, when his lawyers applied to vary his bail.
Judge Susan Horan permitted the former SAS soldier to visit the War Memorial for the opening of the Anzac Hall and Atrium on 23 June but barred him from discussing the criminal cases against himself or Schulz.
Roberts-Smith had been invited along with all other living Victoria Cross recipients, the judge was told.
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Outside court, he told reporters it was “absolutely” appropriate he attend the opening as he had received the prestigious military award.
Prosecutor Simon Buchen SC did not oppose his attendance at the War Memorial opening, nor the military parade to see a family friend graduate at Singleton army base northwest of Sydney on 26 June.
However, Buchen said the war veteran should not attend an after-party held at a function centre in Newcastle because it was an uncontrolled event where alcohol would like be consumed.
Horan denied his requests to attend either because of the risks he would communicate with Schulz, who has also been accused of unlawfully murdering an Afghan national while deployed there in 2012.
Roberts-Smith also applied to move his home address in south-east Queensland, in part because he wanted to be closer to family.
“Today is just about being able to see my [family] and moving back to where we actually live,” he told reporters outside court.
“That’s what we’re focused on today.”
The court was told Roberts-Smith had to lease out a new residence because his parents had sold their home and had to move back into the place in which he was currently living.
His barrister, Slade Howell, argued that his client could just as easily report to a police station close to his home rather than driving to NSW to do so.
However, Buchen urged the court to force the 47-year-old to attend a police station in NSW, saying that only an officer of the NSW police force had the power to enforce the bail conditions imposed.
Horan will hear further arguments about this proposed variation next week.
Roberts-Smith has not entered pleas to any of the charges but has said he will use the upcoming trial to clear his name.
He was released on bail in April after his father, Len Roberts-Smith, a former Western Australian supreme court judge, paid a $250,000 surety.
Australia’s most decorated living soldier is accused of machine-gunning Afghan prisoner Mohammed Essa and ordering the execution of his son Ahmadullah to “blood the rookie” during a raid at a compound in April 2009.
The then SAS soldier allegedly placed firearms on the bodies to falsely claim they were enemy combatants, court documents said.
In August 2012, at the village of Darwan, Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking a handcuffed man named Ali Jan off a 10-metre cliff before ordering that he be dragged to a creek bed and shot.
Two months later at Syahchow, he allegedly lined up two prisoners in a corn field before shooting one of them with another soldier.
He ordered a subordinate to shoot the other prisoner before throwing a grenade on the bodies to cover up what he had done, prosecutors allege.
<small>Source: The Guardian</small>
