Veteran from Australia accused of war crime

A former Australian special forces soldier has been charged with a war crime over the killing of a civilian in Afghanistan. The 41-year-old suspect, identified by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as former Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) trooper Oliver Schulz, was arrested on Monday in the state of New South Wales. The case marks the first war crime charge of murder against a current or former soldier under Australian law, and if convicted, he could face a sentence of life in prison. Australian troops served in Afghanistan in support of a US-led war effort that dragged on for 20 years, starting in 2001. Investigators have tried to build cases against the SAS and commando regiment troops who were deployed to Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

In November 2020, Australian Defence Force chief General Angus Campbell released findings of the military investigation and issued an apology. The 2020 report, issued by Australian Defence Force Inspector-General Paul Brereton, alleged that some commanders required junior soldiers to shoot a prisoner to achieve a first kill, and that troops planted weapons on slain Afghan civilians. Another 2012 incident in Uruzgan province came to light when former SAS medic Dusty Miller told Australian media outlets about an unarmed Afghan man he was treating for a bullet wound through the leg. Injury marks suggested that his chest had been stomped prior to his death.