A major Australian news story broke around lunchtime on Tuesday, when the former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was arrested at Sydney airport. He’s since been charged with 5 counts of the war crime of murder; the culmination of not only a lengthy investigation by federal authorities, but also media reports that date back even further. It’s a story that ties together our defence forces, defamation laws, some of our richest people and our history in Afghanistan… So we thought we’d take a look at what’s happened so far and what might come next.

Squiz Recommends: 

Reading: This piece (paywall) by reporter Nick McKenzie follows Roberts-Smith’s journey from war hero to accused war criminal.

Reading: This podcast series by The Guardian called Ben Roberts-Smith v the Media which follows the defamation case brought by Roberts-Smith against the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and the Canberra Times over reports by McKenzie and his colleague Chris Masters. 

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