War veteran ‘never planned’ to flee overseas

The former SAS soldier was arrested on April 7 and charged with murdering or ordering the murder of five unarmed prisoners during their deployment in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

Documents from the 47-year-old’s bail hearing at Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court were released on Thursday and detail plans he has made with his partner Sarah Matulin to open a business abroad.

In an affidavit filed with the court, Matulin wrote that they had wanted to leave Australia to create some normality in their lives, but that her partner always planned to return if she was charged.

“We never intended to run away from these and always intended to pursue criminal charges if they occurred,” she wrote.

“We have had numerous discussions that if he were ever asked, he would voluntarily hand himself over to police.”

In March 2023, Roberts-Smith contacted the CEO of an outdoor weather protection company in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with the intention of meeting business contacts over a beer.

By October, the couple had become serious about moving abroad and contacted a friend who owned an avocado farm in Myanmar to discuss the possibilities, Matulin wrote.

Later that month, Roberts-Smith began inquiring about purchasing a fitness and wellness business in Spain, and began the visa process to move there.

Matulin said it was no secret they wanted to move to Spain as they had discussed it openly with family and friends.

In his own statement, Roberts-Smith said he had flown abroad 28 times since 2018, including a taxpayer-funded trip to Britain for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022.

He had always returned despite knowing he was under investigation for war crimes, he wrote.

His attorney Karen Espiner revealed in another affidavit that she offered to have her client arrested by “appointment” by turning himself in at a police station if police announced he would be charged.

The lawyer said Roberts-Smith did not inform the special investigator officer – who was investigating the war crimes allegations – of the Spanish plans because there were no restrictions on his travel at the time.

The Victoria Cross recipient has consistently proclaimed his innocence, including during a failed defamation action against Nine, the publisher of this website, following articles detailing a number of alleged war crimes.

While the war veteran’s former employer Kerry Stokes had funded the defamation proceedings, Roberts-Smith revealed he had to liquidate all his assets to fund the later failed appeals.

His parents also coughed up $400,000 to pay his legal fees, his statement said.

“I have no assets and my personal savings have been significantly depleted,” he wrote.

Roberts-Smith receives a service pension of $4,500 per fortnight, his statement said.

He is accused of shooting Afghan prisoner Mohammed Essa and ordering the execution of his son Ahmadullah to “bleed the rookie” during a raid on a compound called Whiskey 108 in April 2009.

Ahmadullah had a prosthetic leg.

The then SAS soldier planted firearms on the bodies to falsely claim they were enemy combatants, according to court documents seen by AAP.

In August 2012, in the village of Darwan, Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking a handcuffed Ali Jan off a 30-foot cliff before ordering him dragged across a creek bed and shot.

Two months later in Syahchow he allegedly lined up two prisoners in a corn field, shooting one of them with another soldier.

He ordered one subordinate to shoot the other before throwing a grenade at the bodies to cover up what he had done, court documents say.

The case will return to court on June 2.

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