MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s most decorated living veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, walked free on bail from a Sydney prison on Friday, 10 days after he was charged with war crimes in the killings of five people while serving in Afghanistan.

Judge Greg Grogin granted Roberts-Smith bail in a Sydney court around five hours earlier, ruling the former Special Air Service Regiment corporal had established exceptional circumstances to justify his release from custody. Prosecutors had opposed bail and argued there was a risk that Roberts-Smith would flee Australia or interfere with witnesses and evidence.

Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crime murder involving the deaths of five Afghans in Uruzgan province in 2009 and 2012.

AUSTRALIA’S MOST DECORATED LIVING SOLDIER CHARGED AMID FIERCE DEBATE OVER WAR CRIMES ALLEGATIONS

Australian law defines war crime murder as the intentional killing in a context of armed conflict of a person who is not taking an active part in the hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war or a wounded soldier.

Roberts-Smith was driven away from Sydney’s Silverwater Correctional Complex late Friday apparently wearing the same clothes he wore when police escorted him from a commercial airliner at Sydney Airport last week, news media images showed.

Roberts-Smith was awarded both the Victoria Cross and Medal of Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan and is only the second Australian veteran of the Afghanistan campaign to be charged with a war crime.

The charges follow a military report released in 2020 that found evidence elite SAS and commando regiment troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and other noncombatants. Around 40,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021, of whom 41 were killed.

Similar allegations against Roberts-Smith were found credible in a civil court case in 2023 when a judge rejected his claims that newspaper articles defamed him.

AUSTRALIA’S MOST DECORATED WAR VETERAN APPEALS COURT RULING THAT BLAMED HIM FOR UNLAWFUL KILLING OF AFGHANS

At that trial, Roberts-Smith testified he had never killed an unarmed Afghan and denied ever committing a war crime. He claimed he has the victim of spiteful fellow soldiers’ lies and of others’ envy of his medals.

But while the civil court found the war crimes allegations were mostly proven on a balance of probabilities, the war crime murder charges would have to be proved in a criminal court to a higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

Roberts-Smith is accused of personally shooting dead two victims. He allegedly ordered subordinates to shoot the other three victims.

In opposing bail, prosecutor Simon Buchen described the charges against Roberts-Smith as “among the most serious known to the criminal law.”

Buchen said Roberts-Smith had been “on the cusp of relocating overseas” without telling authorities when he became aware that prosectors were considering charges.

Roberts-Smith had made “advanced plans to relocate overseas. Consideration was being given to moving to various destinations overseas,” Buchen told the court.

Roberts-Smith faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison on each conviction. He has yet to enter pleas.

JUDGE RULES AUSTRALIA’S MOST DECORATED WAR VETERAN UNLAWFULLY KILLED POWS, COMMITTED WAR CRIMES IN AFGHANISTAN

Defense lawyer Slade Howell told the bail hearing Roberts-Smith’s case “may properly be described as exceptional in the sense that it is out of the ordinary.”

“The use of domestic courts to prosecute alleged war crimes committed by a highly decorated Australian soldier deployed overseas repeatedly by the Australian government to fight a war on its behalf is unprecedented and is uncharted legal territory of the common law of this country,” Howell said.

Howell also said Roberts-Smith’s “proceedings will be beset by a multitude of delays, many of which are peculiar to these proceeding.”

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Potential delays could arise if prosecutors decide to charge one or more of Roberts-Smith’s fellow veterans, some of whom now live overseas, Howell said.

Roberts-Smith took part in the bail hearing by video link from prison and spoke only when asked by the judge to confirm that he could see and hear proceedings.

Sweden’s government has faced growing criticism over its plans to require migrants to adhere to “honest living,” with rights groups and legal experts saying the proposed measure is discriminatory.

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Sweden’s government, which came to power in 2022 on pledges to get tough on immigration and crime, is trying to rapidly push through a slew of reforms ahead of legislative elections in September.

If approved by parliament, the “honest living” measure would come into force on 13 July.

Under the proposed change, the Migration Agency will consider, when granting or renewing non-EU citizens’ residence permits, whether applicants have at any time posed a threat to public order or security, had extremist sympathies or links to groups advocating violence, or committed minor offences punishable by fines.

Other factors may include going into debt “without any intention or effort to repay,” organised begging, committing welfare fraud or working off the books.

Those found not adhering to the “honest living” standard could face deportation.

“The consequences will be very serious” for migrants affected by the reform, John Stauffer, a legal adviser for the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, told the AFP news agency.

Even a person’s statements, although they in themselves should not be considered as proof of a lack of “honest living,” may indicate links to “violent extremism,” Ludvig Aspling, a spokesman for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats which props up the minority right-wing government, said when the plans were announced.

“This creates a system where people, depending on their legal status and whether they are citizens or have residence permits, have different rights in our society, especially when it comes to freedom of expression,” Stauffer said.

“If you are a citizen, you have broad and strongly-protected freedom of expression. If you are not a citizen, then you will have freedom of expression, but it will not be as strong,” he explained.

Unpredictable processing

The proposal would make it easier to revoke immigrants’ residence permits.

“It is not a human right to stay in Sweden. It is important to remember that,” Migration Minister Johan Forssell told AFP.

“If you come to Sweden and you’re not a citizen, it’s almost like being a guest in someone’s home. Then you should show that you want to become part of the country. That you make an effort, that you pull your weight, that you work,” Forssell said.

The government has not yet published a definitive list of actions or behaviours that would constitute a violation of the “honest living” requirement.

The Swedish Refugee Law Centre, an organisation that provides legal assistance to asylum seekers, says the new considerations will make the process for residence permits unpredictable.

“This can also create a sense of insecurity when you don’t really know how your actions in different situations might be assessed,” Elias Nygren, a lawyer working for the organisation, told AFP.

Some organisations worry that certain types of activism may also be considered a breach of “honest living.”

“We organise trainings in civil disobedience, that is, in non-violence and the principles that guide our actions. We are finding that this question comes up more and more often,” Frida Bengtsson, head of Greenpeace Sweden, told AFP.

“Many people are dropping out because they hesitate to take action due to the current uncertainty. They don’t really dare take that risk,” she added.

In a satirical op-ed published in newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Swedish writer Gellert Tamas suggested some members of government take a closer look at their own past.

Some of them, he argued, would be candidates for deportation, starting with the migration minister himself.

“Johan Forssell has ‘clear links to an organisation promoting violence’,” he wrote, citing the wording in the draft of the bill, “because of his son’s former membership in the openly Nazi group Aktivklubb Sverige.”

In July 2025, it emerged in the media that Forssell’s then 16-year-old son was a member of Aktivklubb Sverige, which the minister said he had not been aware of.

“Forssell’s defence, that ‘this was about a deeply remorseful 15-year-old, who just turned 16,’ would hardly have impressed in an assessment into honest living,” Tamas said.

Taking control of migration

Sweden’s Prime Minister told Euronews last year that there was an “absolute need to get control on migration.”

He reiterated his proposal to significantly increase the amount of money Sweden offers to migrants as a financial incentive to leave the country.

The current grant is €900 per adult. However, this initiative has had limited success so far. In 2023, only one out of 70 applications was approved, according to the Swedish Migration Agency.

To reverse this trend, a new government proposal would raise the amount to €32,000, an increase of 3,400%.

Sweden began revamping its asylum policy in 2015, moving to a much stricter stance on application processing after the country hosted record numbers of asylum seekers, more than 160,000 people, from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.