Part two: death in Darwan

Ben Roberts-Smith v the media

In the aftermath of an attack on Australian soldiers by a rogue Afghan soldier, the SAS is sent to the Taliban-controlled village of Darwan. They arrive by helicopter at dawn, looking for Hekmatullah, the soldier who shot dead three of their comrades. It is during this raid, the newspapers allege in court as part of their defence, that Ben Roberts-Smith kicked an unarmed, handcuffed Afghan man off a cliff and then ordered another soldier to shoot him dead. Roberts-Smith denies this outright and says he and another soldier lawfully shot and killed a member of the Taliban they found hiding in a cornfield. In this episode of Ben Roberts-Smith v the media, Ben Doherty takes us through one of the key incidents under dispute in this extraordinary defamation trial – the raid of Darwan. And we hear evidence as presented in court by witnesses for Roberts-Smith and the newspapers in their defence, read by voice actors