SAS soldier ‘who shot farmer' faces Australia's first war crime trial
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.
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