Gina Rinehart has hit back at a ‘relentless attack’ on Ben Roberts-Smith after he lost his defamation appeal against Nine newspapers.
The decorated war veteran last week failed to overturn findings that he was likely complicit in the murder of four unarmed civilians while on deployment in Afghanistan.
The Victoria Cross recipient had sued Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters for defamation over their reports in 2018, which claimed he had committed war crimes.
In 2023, Justice Anthony Besanko found on the balance of probabilities that Roberts-Smith was responsible for the murder of the four civilians.
Roberts-Smith appealed the finding and after a year of waiting, the Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Billionaire mining tycoon Mrs Rinehart came out in support of Roberts-Smith over the weekend.
In a statement, she said the court’s decision had been ‘taken by some in Channel 9 as something they can gloat about,’ according to The Australian.
‘This relentless attack hasn’t made the country better, as some journalists like to imply, it’s just weakened our Defence Force, already struggling with inadequate numbers to defend us,’ Mrs Rinehart said.
Gina Rinehart (pictured) said the ‘relentless attack’ on Ben Roberts-Smith hadn’t made the country better
Ben Roberts-Smith (pictured) failed last week to overturn findings that he likely engaged in war crimes while on deployment in Afghanistan
‘Many patriotic Australians ask, is it fair that this brave and patriotic man who risked his life on overseas missions which he was sent on by our government, is under such attack.’
Mrs Rinehart declined to say whether or not she had helped fund the case.
Roberts-Smith has indicated that he plans to appeal Friday’s decision in the High Court.
‘I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,’ he said in a statement.
The decision clears the path for the soldier to pay out tens of millions of dollars, after the cost of the defamation proceedings was tipped to exceed $25million in 2023.
Roberts-Smith first rose to prominence in 2011 after he was awarded Australia’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, for single-handedly taking out machine-gun posts to protect pinned-down colleagues in Afghanistan.
Later named Australian Father of the Year, his reputation was tarnished by McKenzie’s explosive reports in 2018 alleging the former SAS corporal was complicit in war crimes.
The reports claimed Roberts-Smith machine-gunned a man with a prosthetic leg – which he then encouraged soldiers to use as a drinking vessel.
Roberts-Smith (above) has indicated that he plans to appeal Friday’s decision in the High Court. ‘I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious spiteful allegations,’ he said in a statement
On the same day in 2009, Roberts-Smith was alleged to have ordered the execution of an elderly prisoner to ‘blood the rookie’ during a raid on a compound known as Whiskey 108.
The former special forces soldier was accused of kicking a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in the village of Darwan before dragging him to a creek and ordering his execution on September 11, 2012.
Nine’s coverage claimed Roberts-Smith ordered another prisoner be shot and killed after a weapons cache was discovered in the village of Cinartu.
Justice Besanko’s findings – upheld on Friday – were made on the balance of probabilities. Roberts-Smith has not been charged over the allegations.
Federal Court Justices Nye Perram, Anna Katzmann and Geoffrey Kennett on Friday also found McKenzie had done nothing wrong in relation to a secret recording between him and a woman known as Person 17 in the original trial.
Person 17 had once been Roberts-Smith’s mistress and accused him of punching her in the head after a function at Parliament House, which Justice Besanko found had not been proved.
McKenzie was recorded in early 2021 telling Person 17 that Roberts-Smith’s estranged wife Emma and her friend Danielle Scott were ‘actively briefing us on his legal strategy in respect of you’.
‘I shouldn’t tell you,’ McKenzie said in the 85-second audio clip. ‘I’ve just breached my f***ing ethics in doing that.’
Roberts-Smith (pictured with Queen Elizabeth II) first rose to prominence in 2011 after he was awarded Australia’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross
Roberts-Smith’s lawyers contended McKenzie had received legally privileged information which led to a miscarriage of justice.
McKenzie denied he had received any material he knew to be privileged and the Full Court unanimously accepted his evidence.
After the decision, Hachette Australia announced it would release an updated edition of Crossing the Line, McKenzie’s book about Australian conduct in Afghanistan.
The book would include ‘exclusive new material on the appeal (by Roberts-Smith), the continuing fallout, and the emotional and professional toll of the case,’ the publisher said.
