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Justice Anthony Besanko has handed down his decision in the federal court in Sydney in the defamation trial brought by Australia’s most decorated living soldier – follow live updates and watch a replay of the live stream

Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case with judge saying newspapers established truth of murdersThe judgment: read Justice Anthony Besanko’s full summaryGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Federal court justice Anthony Besanko has arrived on the bench and is preparing to read a summary of his judgment.

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That Roberts-Smith, on a mission to the southern Afghan village of Darwan in 2012, marched a handcuffed man named Ali Jan to stand above a 10-metre-high cliff that dropped down to a dry riverbed below. Roberts-Smith was alleged to have kicked him, causing him to fall from the cliff and sustain serious injuries, and then ordered a subordinate soldier to shoot Ali Jan dead before the body was dragged into a cornfield. Roberts-Smith denies this and says the man was a “spotter” – a forward scout for enemy insurgents – found hiding in the cornfield and carrying a radio. He says he was a legitimate target.

That, during a raid on a compound codenamed Whiskey 108 in 2009, two men were found hiding in a secret tunnel. The media outlets said the two men were unarmed and surrendered. Roberts-Smith allegedly ordered a junior soldier on his patrol to execute the elderly man, before manhandling the man with the prosthetic leg outside the compound, where he threw him to the ground and fired his Para Minimi machine gun into his prone body. Roberts-Smith denied the allegations and said there was no one in the tunnel. He said that two Afghan men were killed at Whiskey 108 legitimately, in accordance with the Australian troops’ rules of engagement: they were “squirters” – Taliban members trying to flee the compound.

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Law (Australia) | The Guardian