On Thursday, a top Taliban leader said about Foreign Forces Crimes in Afghanistan, that during the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan, foreign forces had engaged in significant crimes.
In response to a former Australian soldier losing a slander lawsuit over allegations of killing Afghan civilians during a protracted operation in Afghanistan.
Bilal Karimi, a Taliban spokesman, made these comments. Karimi stated that the occurrences addressed in the Australian court case were just a small portion of the numerous alleged crimes that had been committed. Furthermore, Karimi expressed a lack of faith in any international court to investigate these crimes.
Ben Roberts-Smith, a former soldier of the Australian Elite Special Air Service Regiment, sued three publications in 2018 after they published stories claiming he was responsible for the killing of Afghan civilians.
In addition to rejecting the accusations, Mr. Smith also filed a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit in retaliation.
After two years of litigation, an Australian judge ruled that the newspaper had established the majority of its accusations to be “substantially true” and dismissed the lawsuit.
After making the judgement public, the defendants hailed it, calling it a significant victory for Australia’s free press and for the Afghan civilians who had been the victims of such atrocities.
During his tour in Afghanistan, Roberts-Smith heroically pursued a top Taliban leader, earning the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour.
The foreign forces in Afghanistan might regard the actions of Roberts-Smith as a blatant act of war against humanity, as numerous Australian publications stated that he shoved an unarmed Afghan civilian down a cliff and told subordinates to shoot him.