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Times
an hour ago
- Times
SAS soldier ‘who shot farmer' faces Australia's first war crime trial
A former member of the SAS is due to become the first Australian soldier to face a war crime trial, 13 years after allegedly shooting an unarmed farmer in an Afghan wheat field. Oliver Schulz, 43, is accused of murdering Dad Mohammad, a young father of two, in May 2012 in Dehjawze, a village in the Uruzgan province of southern Afghanistan. After his arrest by police in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales in March 2023, the case was bogged down in the local courts. On Wednesday Greg Grogin, a magistrate in Sydney, finally committed it to trial, having expressed frustration that it had taken so long to get to that stage. The landmark case is now set to begin in the supreme court in October and Schulz, who denies the charge, faces life in jail if found guilty. Schulz was already the first Australian soldier to be charged with a war crime. Despite the gravity of the alleged offence, he was granted bail because of the risk that he could be targeted by Taliban sympathisers while in jail. The catalyst for his arrest was the decision by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2020 to air graphic video of the alleged murder of Mohammad, who was shot three times while lying on his back. It was taken from the helmet camera of a dog handler who joined Schulz on the fateful patrol in March 2012. Mohammad is believed to have been 25 or 26. The video prompted a public outcry and a three-year criminal investigation after the prime minister at the time, Scott Morrison, described the video as shocking. Under the Commonwealth Criminal Code, a killing constitutes a war crime of murder if the victim is not a combatant or is out of action due to injury or damage. Prosecutors must prove that the perpetrator knew, or was reckless regarding, the status of the victim. Schulz completed multiple tours of Afghanistan and was commended for gallantry before being stood down by the ADF after the video was broadcast in 2020. ABC revealed that the military had investigated the killing months after the alleged incident, having received complaints from Afghan villagers, but cleared the soldier of wrongdoing. An extended version of the helmet camera video, which is likely to feature prominently in the trial, was played at the committal hearing in April and May, when former SAS colleagues who witnessed the alleged murder were questioned. The video shows Schulz aboard a Black Hawk helicopter before it lands, and the soldiers running about 50 metres across a wheat field. The purpose of the mission was to kill or capture a Taliban insurgent called Mullah Payend, codename Objective Young Akira, the court was told. The dog handler and Schulz can be seen moving towards an open field and coming across Mohammad, who had been trying to fight off the dog. Schulz points his gun at Mohammad as the dog is called off. He looks around and asks three times whether he should 'drop this c***' before firing three shots at Mohammad, who had a condition that stunted growth in one leg. The initial ADF investigation, which cleared Schulz, painted a different picture. A military report claimed Mohammad had been seen 'tactically manoeuvring' on the ground as Schulz's helicopter approached. Smoke and flares were dropped from the helicopter but soldiers were forced to pursue him on foot as he could not be engaged from the air. He was then killed after being ordered to stop, according to the report. The police investigation was taken over by the Office of the Special Investigator, the body set up to prove alleged war crimes after an inquiry led by Paul Brereton, an army reserve major general and New South Wales supreme court judge. The Brereton inquiry concluded November 2020, recommending that 23 incidents and 19 individuals be referred for further investigation. It recommended that any alleged war crime should be tried in civilian court rather than in a military tribunal. Until now, Schulz's case had been overshadowed by that of another former SAS trooper, Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia's most decorated living soldier. The 46-year-old corporal started a defamation case against Australian newspapers after they reported he had murdered four unarmed civilians in Afghanistan. The legal action backfired when a federal court judge ruled against him in June 2023. Roberts-Smith, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in 2011 for his service in Afghanistan, lost his appeal in May but had vowed to fight on.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
US sanctions international court officials in ‘flagrant' move against independent judiciary
The Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to hobble the international criminal court in what the ICC has denounced as a 'flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution'. The US state department on Wednesday announced new sanctions on four ICC officials, including two judges and two prosecutors, saying they had been instrumental in efforts to prosecute Americans and Israelis. As a result of the sanctions, any assets that the targets hold in US jurisdictions are frozen. The sanctions were immediately denounced by both the ICC and the United Nations, while Israel welcomed the move announced by the secretary of state Marco Rubio. It is just the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken against the Hague-based court, the world's first international war crimes tribunal. The US, which is not a member of the court, has already imposed penalties on the ICC's former chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who stepped aside in May pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, and four other tribunal judges. The new penalties target ICC judges Kimberly Prost of Canada and Nicolas Guillou of France and prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal. 'These individuals are foreign persons who directly engaged in efforts by the international criminal court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of either nation,' Rubio said. He added that the administration would continue 'to take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our troops, our sovereignty and our allies from the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions'. In a separate statement, the state department said Prost was sanctioned for a ruling to authorize an ICC investigation into personnel in Afghanistan, which was later dropped. Guillou was sanctioned for ruling to authorize the ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, related to Israel's war in Gaza. France – whose president, Emmanuel Macron, was in Washington two days earlier – expressed 'dismay' over the action. The sanctions are 'in contradiction to the principle of an independent judiciary', a foreign ministry spokesperson said in Paris. Khan and Niang were penalized for continuing Karim Khan's investigation into Israel's actions in Gaza, including upholding the ICC's arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, according to the statement. In response, the ICC issued a statement calling the sanctions 'a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution' and 'an affront against the Court's states parties, the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world'. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the ICC had the full support of the world body to carry out its work. The UN was 'very concerned' about the US continuing to target the international court, he said. 'We firmly believe that the ICC is a key pillar of international criminal justice, and we respect their work,' Dujarric said. 'The decision imposes severe impediments on the functioning of the office of the prosecutor in respect for all the situations that are currently before the court.' Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Netanyahu welcomed the US move. 'This is a firm measure against the mendacious smear campaign against the State of Israel and the IDF, and for truth and justice,' he said in a statement, using an acronym for the Israeli military. Wednesday's move carries on a history of Trump administration actions against the ICC dating back to his first term in office. During Trump's first term, the US hit the ICC with sanctions, but those were rescinded by Joe Biden's administration in early 2021. Danya Chaikel, the International Federation for Human Rights's representative to the ICC, said the escalation in US sanctions amounted to 'a continued attack on the rule of law and a blatant attempt to intimidate those pursuing accountability for atrocity crimes'. She said the new sanctions were a 'defining test' for the ICC's 125 member states. 'Will they defend the court's independence and the rights of victims of international crimes, or allow intimidation by powerful states to dictate who deserves justice?' she added.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Senior ISIS member killed in US military operation in Syria, official says
ATMEH, Syria, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A pre-dawn U.S. military raid in northwestern Syria early on Wednesday targeted and killed a senior member of the Islamic State group, a U.S. official told Reuters. It was the second known raid in northern Syria by U.S. troops since former President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December. The Islamist-led government that replaced him has pledged to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State and is part of an anti-ISIS alliance that includes the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group. The U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the raid killed a senior ISIS member who was seen as a candidate to be the leader of ISIS in Syria. No U.S. troops were killed or injured in the raid, the official added. A Syrian security source and Syria's state-owned Al-Ikhbariya said the target was killed as he tried to escape. Another Syrian source said the target was an Iraqi national and was married to a French national. It was not immediately clear what happened to his wife. The Pentagon did not immediately have any public comment on the reports. The operation began at around 2 a.m. (1100 GMT), according to the Syrian security sources and neighbours in the town of Atmeh, in Idlib province. Helicopters and drones provided air cover, one Syrian security source and residents said. Local Syrian forces set up a cordon around the neighbourhood, but U.S. forces conducted the actual raid, the second security source said. Abdelqader al-Sheikh, a neighbour, said he was up late with his son and heard a noise in the yard next door. "I called out, 'Who are you?' and they started speaking to me in English, telling me to put my hands up," Sheikh told Reuters. He said the armed forces stayed on the roofs of surrounding houses for the next two hours and that he could hear someone nearby speaking Arabic in an Iraqi accent. In July, the Pentagon said its forces had conducted a raid in Aleppo province resulting in the death of a senior Islamic State leader and his two adult Islamic State-affiliated sons. Idlib has been a hiding spot for senior Islamic State figures for years. U.S. forces killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the village of Barisha in Idlib province in 2019 and his successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, in Atmeh in 2022.
