The federal police commissioner, Krissy Barrett, says she is determined to find out how the media knew of Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest ahead of time and says the alleged leaker should “face consequences”.
Earlier this week, the federal government’s special investigator for war crimes allegations and the Australian federal police told a Senate estimates hearing they have asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) to investigate media leaks. As of Tuesday, the Nacc had yet to respond to the request.
Arrested at Sydney airport on 7 April, Roberts-Smith faces five charges of war crime murder over allegations he killed unarmed civilians during his service with the Australian SAS in Afghanistan. The former SAS corporal has vehemently denied the charges, saying “I categorically deny all of these allegations”.
At a Senate estimates hearing last night, the AFP boss said she had no evidence someone in her organisation had shared details of the imminent arrest with journalists but referred it to the Nacc “out of an abundance of caution”.
Barrett said one media outlet was at the airport when Roberts-Smith was arrested and she was “determined to find out how they knew of the arrest”.
Barrett said:
double quotation markIf the date of the individual’s arrest or other sensitive information was disclosed to anyone in the media, this could be an unauthorised disclosure, and in my view, anyone who disclosed that information should face consequences.
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