Ben Roberts-Smith, a former soldier, was forced to reimburse multiple media outlets for their legal expenses after a defamation lawsuit alleging he committed war crimes was unsuccessful.
In June, the Federal Court determined that stories that claimed Roberts-Smith was involved in four killings while serving in Afghanistan and were carried out by Nine newspapers and The Canberra Times were essentially accurate.
He has already challenged the ruling and is not facing any criminal charges.
Today, the court ruled that he must reimburse the outlets for the legal fees they incurred throughout the protracted defamation trial, which lasted 110 days to hear.
The estimated cost for the opposing parties is more than $25 million.
Allegations that the SAS soldier was complicit in the killings of four unarmed captives were published in the nine-owned publications The Canberra Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Age.
This webpage is published by Nine.
Earlier this year, Nicholas Owens SC, the publishers’ attorney, told the court that Roberts-Smith had filed a lawsuit to hide the truth and would have been successful in doing so had the newspapers been unable to provide evidence to support their allegations.
“It must be the case, inevitably and necessarily, that the applicant commenced these proceedings and continued these proceedings knowing those imputations sued upon were in fact true,” he stated.
