Touch upon this story
Remark
CANBERRA, Australia — Police have charged the primary Australian veteran with homicide for a killing in Afghanistan three years after a warfare crimes investigation discovered that 19 Australian particular forces troopers might face costs for unlawful conduct.
Former Particular Air Service Regiment trooper Oliver Schulz, 41, was arrested in New South Wales state and charged by police with the warfare crime of homicide, an Australian Federal Police assertion stated.
“It will likely be alleged he murdered an Afghan man whereas deployed to Afghanistan,” the assertion stated.
Schulz’s cost was talked about late Monday in a Queanbeyan courtroom the place his lawyer didn’t apply for his launch on bail. Schulz was remanded in custody to look in a Sydney courtroom on Could 16.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. broadcast helmet digital camera video in 2020 of a soldier it stated was Schulz capturing an Afghan man in 2012 in a wheat discipline in Uruzgan province.
Schulz, who was awarded the Commendation for Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan, faces a possible sentence of life in jail if convicted.
Police are working with the Workplace of the Particular Investigator, an Australian investigation company established in 2021, to construct instances towards elite SAS and Commando Regiments troops who served in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.
A navy report launched in 2020 after a four-year investigation discovered proof that Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and civilians. The report beneficial 19 present and former troopers face legal investigation.
Benjamin Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most extremely adorned member of the armed providers when he left the SAS in 2013, has been accused by former colleagues of illegal remedy of prisoners, together with unlawful killings. The previous corporal, who was awarded the Victoria Cross and the Medal for Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan, has denied any misconduct.
His defamation trial towards The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Instances newspapers resulted in July 2022 however a judgment has but to be introduced.
Greater than 39,000 Australian navy personnel served in Afghanistan in the course of the 20 years till the 2021 withdrawal, and 41 have been killed there.