Now it’s Ben Roberts-Smith v Justice Anthony Besanko
Ben Roberts-Smith v Nine was the first part of the “defamation trial of the century”. Now it’s Ben Roberts-Smith v Justice Anthony Besanko.
The decorated war veteran this week pulled the trigger on his anticipated appeal against findings that he was a war criminal, murderer and bully who was complicit in the unlawful killing of four unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan.
Ben Roberts-Smith is challenging the defamation verdict which has cast a shadow over his service ion Afghanistan. Illustration: Ollie Towning Photo: Oscar Colman
This time he’s not trying to prove that The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times – and journalists Nick McKenzie, Chris Masters and David Wroe – got it wrong. It’s all about whether the judge got it right.
Two questions immediately emerge; who will be paying for the appeal, and does it have any chance? The short answers are: if anyone, Kerry Stokes – and probably not.
The problem for Roberts Smith is that he needs to wipe the slate clean. If even one finding of murder stands up, the main imputation drawn from the newspaper articles – that he murdered or was involved in the murders of Afghan males under control or containment during the war in Afghanistan – would survive.
While the appeal is all about Besanko, the judge isn’t the respondent. That falls to Nine which took over the former Fairfax titles in 2018, soon after the first stories about “BRS” were published.
Nine, which also publishes The Australian Financial Review, will be looking for some assurances that Roberts-Smith can pay for an appeal that could run for three weeks and cost at least $3 million.
The Victoria Cross recipient agreed on June 29 that he would meet the costs of the trial – estimated at $25 million for both
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