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Pauline Hanson has questioned whether authorities ranked above accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith will face trial as she addressed a ‘Justice for Ben’ community barbecue in Brisbane’s south-west on Sunday.
The One Nation leader arrived to cheers and claps at the event in Seventeen Mile Rocks, before being surrounded by her own supporters. Nearby was a ‘Ben for PM’ sign.
Hanson threw her support behind the former soldier at the event, held in a local park in the Oxley electorate where the populist leader first entered parliament as an independent MP after initially running for the Liberal Party.
“None of us can judge Ben. But what I can judge is the man has now been charged with a crime 17 years after the fact,” she told a crowd, who had showed up to the ‘Friends of Ben’ community barbecue.
“That’s wrong. I also question about the authorities above Ben. He was corporal at the time.
“What has happened to those people? Are they actually going to be on trial as well?”
Roberts-Smith, who was charged earlier this year over allegations he murdered unarmed Afghan civilians and prisoners during his service with the Australian SAS in Afghanistan, did not appear for the event.
He was charged with five counts of war crime murder related to his deployment in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for each charge.
Roberts-Smith has previously rejected the charges, saying “I categorically deny all of these allegations”.
Several of the alleged crimes were canvassed in the defamation case that Roberts-Smith unsuccessfully brought against this masthead.
That case saw the war crimes allegations tested against civil test of the balance of probabilities. Prosecutors will need to prove beyond reasonable doubt, a higher standard of proof, in the looming criminal case.
Hanson assured the crowd, of about 100 people, that she would let Roberts-Smith know of the support at the event.
“I’ve spoken to Ben, and I’ve also spoken to his parents. They’re devastated, but when I spoke to Ben, I said, ‘Ben, don’t give up, you have so many Australians that are behind you, supporting you, encouraging you, respect you.
“He said ‘Pauline, I know’.”
Hanson said Roberts-Smith’s public arrest in front of the media, was put out there for a show.
“I know, because I’ve had it done to me as well when I was charged – out in the middle of nowhere, and I had the media in tow to take those initial photographs.
“So I understand what he went through, and it should never have happened.”
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett has since said anyone who leaked details of the arrest to the media in advance should face consequences.
When asked by journalists whether she had considered asking Roberts-Smith to run for One Nation, she said she would not ask him.
“No, and I don’t think it’d be fair to Ben to put that pressure on him … I can’t stress it enough, I have worn his shoes, I’ve faced a criminal trial … you do not put that on to anyone ‘will you be a member of parliament?’, I haven’t even asked him that. Let him get through this, what he’s facing. ”
Hanson again referred to herself on trial, saying it was a distressing time.
“Especially when you know you’re innocent, and I think that Ben needs to know that people are supportive of him, that not everyone is against him,” she said.
The prosecution of Roberts-Smith has divided the conservative side of politics with senior Liberal Party figure Andrew Hastie tipped to give evidence against the highly-decorated soldier.
Last week shadow attorney general Michaelia Cash defended a senior staffer who authored an opinion piece defending Roberts-Smith at the same time as billionaires Kerry Stokes and Gina Rinehart, a significant donor to One Nation, have also criticised the prosecution.
The event on Sunday comes against a backdrop of a rise in polls for One Nation. Hanson has put that growing support down to people being fed up with the two major political parties, and other issues, such as migration.
One Nation’s primary vote grew from 6.4 per cent at the election in May to about 15 per cent before the Bondi massacre. In recent YouGov and Redbridge polls, the party is up to about 30 per cent.
This masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor has One Nation at 24 per cent.
Many at the event on Sunday greeted Hanson warmly, asking for photos. One woman, Tammy Hickey, had travelled from Cunnamulla in south-west Queensland, a more than 12 hour bus trip.
“It was very important to support Ben because it’s just a travesty what he’s been put through.
Hickey said her father had served in World War II and would be “horrified at what Ben’s been put through”.
She said she was very passionate about it, and would not care where she had to come from to attend.
Some at the event questioned how the media were reporting the Roberts-Smith case, and organisers took photos of journalists identification cards, despite it being a public park.
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