Former Australian SAS soldier for murder of civilians in Afghanistan charged with war crimes

An excellent veteran of the secret special units of the Australian army was charged with a war crime after recordings appeared by an Afghan farmer who was abused by a dog and then executed in a field.

Oliver Schulz, 41, was celebrated for his bravery during his numerous tours through Afghanistan until a devastating helmet camera video of his tour of the public revealed a disturbing dark side of the Elite Special Air Service Regiment (SAS).

his arrest on Monday by the federal police on a remote mountain property in New South Wales was the first time that a former or serving Australian soldier was prosecuted due to war crimes.

"It is said that he had murdered an Afghan when he was deployed with the Australian Defense Force in Afghanistan," says a statement by the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI).

The OSI has been set up after Australian special units of the murder of dozens of Afghan civilians were accused and examined for decades of war for brutal acts.

soldiers had cut the throats through and placed weapons near their bodies to give the appearance that they were a threat, investigators found.

Tim McCormack, legal professor at the University of Tasmania, special advisor of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, said the indictment was unprecedented.

"I suspect that this will be an important precedent for the British, the Canadians, the New Zealanders and hopefully also for other state parties [to the ICC]," he said to ABC.

According to reports, the indictment of Monday referred to the alleged murder of the young father Dad Mohammed, who was identified as the man who was seen how he clutched prayer beads and crouched into a wheat harvest when he was confronted by a SAS patrol.

The Australian Defense Force had originally decided that the murder was justified because Mr. Mohammed was a direct threat and acted his soldiers in self -defense.

However,

Film material obtained from the ABC showed that the farmer was unarmed when a soldier fired three shots into his head and chest from no more than two meters away. It contradicted the version of the events that the soldiers reported to the ADF.

This claim and stories about a culture of impunity and cover -up agreed with the results of a report by the General Inspector of the ADF, which identified 39 illegal killings through special units and other evidence of war crimes by Australians in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

Some perpetrators were still used in the Australian army at the time of publishing the report.