The Commonwealth investigator into alleged Australian war crimes has referred concerns to the national corruption watchdog over how media appeared to know in advance about Victoria Cross winner Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest at Sydney Airport last month.
The Office of the Special Investigator says it has asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission to examine whether operational details were improperly disclosed before Roberts-Smith was taken into custody on April 7 and charged with five counts of war crimes.
Prosecutors allege he murdered unarmed civilians during his service with the Australian SAS in Afghanistan.
He faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for each charge. The former SAS corporal has rejected the charges, saying “I categorically deny all of these allegations”.
Director-general Chris Moraitis told Senate estimates the referral had been made jointly with the Australian Federal Police.
Under questioning by Liberal senator Dave Sharma, Moraitis said his office had been made aware of journalists present ahead of the arrest because “we saw media on the morning, around various places”.
“It’s a matter that concerns me. The media seem to have been privy to things, and therefore we’re taking steps to ascertain what happened there,” he said.
“We’ve written jointly with the Australian Federal Police to the NACC, because we’re both of that view, and it’s a joint investigation.”
Moraitis said he was surprised details appeared to become public before the arrest and confirmed the NACC had not yet responded.
“Obviously, we don’t have the capability ourselves unless we bring in a private consultant to do some work on that,” he told senators. “I think it surprised me that it happened, because we [have] usually been pretty good on keeping a low profile.”
Moraitis said the office of Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, would have been informed on the morning of the arrest before it happened, but they would not have been aware of the location of the arrest.
Roberts-Smith remains on bail and is due to appear at Sydney’s Downing Centre on June 4. Under his conditions he must regularly present at a specific police station except when he is travelling to Sydney or Perth to meet his legal team. He has also surrendered his passport.
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Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.