Former NZ SAS trooper was man photographed in KKK outfit in Afghanistan, court hears

Tuesday, 26 April 2022

New Zealand SAS soldiers receive a US Presidential unit citation for their work in Afghanistan.

A man photographed wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit, holding a hangman’s noose, and burning a cross at a party while serving in Afghanistan in the Australian SAS was a former New Zealand SAS trooper, a court has heard.

The photos gained worldwide attention when it emerged Australian soldiers had used a dead man’s prosthetic leg as a drinking vessel at such parties.

The ex-trooper, codenamed Person 35, appeared today in the Australian Federal Court at Sydney in a defamation case brought by former Australian SAS corporal Ben Roberts-Smith.

Roberts-Smith is a Victoria Cross recipient and his country’s most decorated living soldier. He is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Canberra Times over a series of articles that claimed he committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

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Roberts-Smith denies the allegations. His lawyers have argued that the accusations made against him by some of his former comrades are motivated by jealousy and malice. The newspapers are pleading a defence of truth.

Person 35 was a member of a 2004 NZSAS patrol that was attacked in Afghanistan by insurgents – an event that led to New Zealand serviceman Willie Apiata receiving the Victoria Cross for his actions, including carrying a seriously wounded comrade to safety.

Person 35 later joined the Australian SAS and served with Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan in 2009. He told the court that he joined the Australian SAS because there were more deployment prospects and because the pay and living conditions were better. He now works in New Zealand, but has been granted name suppression by the Australian court for national security reasons.

The court has heard that Roberts-Smiths’ employer, billionaire Kerry Stokes, the owner of Australia’s Channel Seven Network is paying Person 35’s legal expenses in the defamation case. Person 35 is giving evidence for Roberts-Smith.

The court has also heard that Stokes has been paying for Person 35’s legal expenses relating to an inquiry by the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) into war crimes allegedly committed by Australian forces in Afghanistan.

Person 35, along with other present and former Australian special forces soldiers, has been questioned under oath by the IGADF inquiry. That inquiry found evidence that 39 Afghan prisoners or civilians had been murdered by, or on the instruction of, Australian special forces.

Ben Roberts-Smith who is Australia's most decorated living soldier and a Victoria Cross recipient.

The Australian Federal Police is now investigating these war crimes allegations.

Person 35 is a key witness in the defamation proceedings as he was present with Robert-Smith and other SAS troopers during a raid in 2009 on a compound known as Whiskey 108. Some of those troopers have given evidence alleging that during that mission Roberts-Smith executed an Afghan man and ordered a junior SAS trooper to execute another. Robert-Smith denies he made any execution orders and says the man he shot was an armed and legitimate target.

There has been no suggestion that Person 35 participated in either killing.

The person Roberts-Smith is alleged to have killed during the raid had a prosthetic leg. It was removed by another SAS trooper and taken back to the Australian SAS base at Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan province and used as a drinking implement during parties.

It was at one of these parties where Person 35 allegedly wore a Ku Klux Klan outfit and was photographed holding a hangman’s noose and burning a cross. He was identified by another person in court last week as the man wearing the Ku Klux Klan costume.

The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist terrorist group formed in America over 150 years ago. Its members were known for wearing white robes and hoods, burning crosses, and lynching victims.

Former Defence Minister Dr Wayne Mapp said the alleged actions of Person 35 would be a betrayal of the values taught in the New Zealand Defence Force. He said recent media reports had highlighted differences between the New Zealand and Australian special forces in terms of the treatment of indigenous people.

Those reports, by the ABC’s Four Corners programme, found that NZSAS troopers and a New Zealand military lawyer in East Timor had complained about the conduct of their Australian counterparts, including the desecration of corpses following a fire fight and the mistreatment of prisoners.

One NZSAS officer quoted by Four Corners described the Australian SAS in East Timor as “cowboys”.

Mapp said “It would be very disappointing if a former New Zealand SAS trooper who joined the Australian SAS did not uphold the same high standards that have always been maintained by our special forces”.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported former Defence Minister Dr Wayne Mapp as calling the alleged actions of the Australian SAS a betrayal of the values taught in the New Zealand Defence Force. Mapp was referring to the alleged actions of Person 35. (Amended April 26, 2022, 10.29pm).