{"id":827922,"date":"2026-05-28T14:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/827922\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T14:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:12:19","slug":"afp-commissioner-krissy-barrett-defends-ben-roberts-smith-airport-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/827922\/","title":{"rendered":"AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett defends Ben Roberts-Smith airport arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett has pushed back on criticism surrounding the public arrest of former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith during a parliamentary hearing.<\/p>\n

Roberts-Smith was arrested at Sydney Airport on April 7 after travelling from Brisbane with his family, and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder.<\/p>\n

The Victoria Cross recipient is currently on bail and has said he categorically denies all of the allegations.<\/p>\n

The circumstances of the arrest prompted some concerns, with figures like Opposition Leader Angus Taylor questioning why he was arrested in a public place, and in front of his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

In evidence to a Senate Estimates hearing, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett argued the airport was the best option for a number of operational reasons.<\/p>\n

That included information gained by war crimes investigators that Roberts-Smith could be bound overseas, which was previously disclosed in court documents.<\/a><\/p>\n

“The individual had no known fixed abode, and the [Office of the Special Investigator] had received information that the individual was planning to relocate overseas,” she said on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside Ben Roberts-Smith’s prosecution<\/a><\/p>\n

Once celebrated as Australia’s most decorated living war hero, the looming prosecution of Ben Roberts-Smith is dividing the force.<\/p>\n

“An operational decision was made to arrest the individual at Sydney Airport on the 7th of April, 2026.”<\/p>\n

Commissioner Barrett said airports were frequently used by police to make arrests, as people in airports were screened by security and were contained within them.<\/p>\n

She said suggestions made in the media that the AFP wanted to arrest him in New South Wales to avoid a trial before a Queensland jury are “inaccurate”.<\/p>\n

\"Up<\/p>\n

The former SAS corporal has said he categorically denies all of the allegations. (AAP: Bianca de Marchi)<\/p>\n

Commissioner Barrett also addressed why police did not take up an offer for Roberts-Smith to hand himself in.<\/p>\n

“For a range of reasons, including the seriousness of the charges, which are five counts of war crime murder, and carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, this was determined to be an unviable option.”<\/p>\n

She said officers were aware he would be travelling with family, and additional officers were deployed to help Roberts-Smith’s family after his arrest.<\/p>\n

‘<\/strong>Determined’ to track down media leaks<\/p>\n

Commissioner Barrett told the hearing that she intended to find out how details of the planned arrest were leaked to the media before it took place.<\/p>\n

The leaks have been referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, and both the AFP and OSI have said they do not know how the details emerged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nine News had crews at Sydney Airport before the arrest took place, and captured vision of the arrest from inside the terminal.<\/p>\n

“I am not just disappointed that the media outlet was there; I am determined to find out how they knew of the arrest,” she said.<\/p>\n

Media leaks ahead of Ben Roberts-Smith arrest referred to corruption commission<\/a><\/p>\n

News crews were at Sydney Airport as a plane carrying Ben Roberts-Smith landed, and captured images of his arrest from inside the terminal.<\/p>\n

“I want to be very clear, and this is really important \u2014 if the date of the individual’s arrest or other sensitive information was disclosed to anyone in the media, this could be an unauthorised disclosure.<\/p>\n

“And in my view, anyone who disclosed that information should face consequences.”<\/p>\n

The AFP was given authorisation to make the arrest on April 1, after it was considered by the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions and approved by the Attorney-General.<\/p>\n

Operational planning then began, before Roberts-Smith was arrested on April 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett has pushed back on criticism surrounding the public arrest of former soldier…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":827923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[30310,12424,4740,112683,295902,152410,50,339909,147465],"class_list":["post-827922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-afp","tag-arrest","tag-australia","tag-australian-federal-police","tag-ben-roberts-smith","tag-krissy-barrett","tag-news","tag-public-arrest-of-ben-roberts-smith-questioned","tag-senate-estimates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116652615176918196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}