‘Fanciful, nonsense’: case against Ben Roberts-Smith ‘based on conjecture’, lawyer tells defamation trial

Former soldier's barrister says newspapers accusing him of murders while part of SAS failed to establish any motive' and the case is an embarrassment'

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The case alleging war crimes and murder against Ben Roberts-Smith is a nonsense and ... an embarrassment ... based on conjecture, speculation and imprecise testimony" his lawyers have told the federal court, as his long-running defamation trial enters its final phase.

Roberts-Smith was the most decorated soldier of Australia's long war in Afghanistan, a man who undertook dozens of dangerous missions, captured hundreds of prisoners, and, without exception, obeyed the laws of war, his barrister Arthur Moses SC told the court on Friday morning in closing submissions.

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