MONITORING (SW) – A rudimentary grave in a rural Afghan village holds the secrets to the first war crimes case to be held in Australia against a member of the country’s military.
For more than a decade, the family of farmer and father of two Dad Mohammad have prayed at his grave in Uruzgan Province, in southern Afghanistan, for the Australian SAS soldiers involved in his killing to face trial, reported ABC News.
More than 11,000 kilometres away, details of the killing were finally heard this week in a Sydney courtroom, where one decorated SAS veteran faced a charge of war crime — murder.
Oliver Jordan Schulz, 41, is the first current or former Australian Defence Force (ADF) member ever to be charged with a war crime in Australia, after he was arrested in southern New South Wales last week in relation to the killing.
Yesterday, Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court was told that Mr Schulz was filmed on a helmet camera shooting the allegedly unarmed, disabled man, who was lying still in a wheat field during a raid on his village in 2012.
That video was revealed by ABC Investigations and the Four Corners program in 2020, sparking a three-year criminal probe.
The arrest was hailed as unprecedented among Australia’s Western allies, who have so far resisted trying their military personnel for alleged war crimes in civilian courts.
However, the trial of Mr Schulz will not go far enough for the family of Dad Mohammad, who spoke with the ABC from the farm where he died.
“[Mr Schulz is] not the only man that came here,” said Dad Mohammad’s brother, Jamshid, speaking through a translator.
“We want those people who took part in this operation, all of them should be arrested and tried.”
Mr Mohammad’s family lost hope long ago that they would ever see justice. Afghan villagers first complained to the ADF about the killing months after the 2012 raid.
However, ADF investigators cleared Mr Schulz, concluding that Dad Mohammad was lawfully killed because he posed a direct threat to the Australians.
Investigators were told the Afghan man was holding a radio and “tactically manoeuvring”.
Video of shooting detailed in court
Mr Schulz was granted bail yesterday after Sydney’s Downing Centre Local court heard he was at risk from Islamic extremist groups and Taliban sympathisers inside prison.
Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson told the bail hearing that the helmet cam video of the killing showed that Mr Mohammad was “quiet and not resisting” when Mr Schulz shot him.
She said Mr Mohammad could be seen lying on his back and holding prayer beads in one of his raised hands.
After a conversation with other patrol members, Mr Schulz “turns towards the Afghan man and shoots towards him three times”, Magistrate Atkinson said.
“The man appears to go limp after the first shot and is not moving.”
Prosecutors allege Mr Mohammad was not involved in active hostilities.
The ADF awarded Mr Schulz a Commendation for Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan, but the court was told he was suspended from duty days after the Four Corners report aired and terminated on medical grounds in February, 2021.
Speaking with the ABC before the hearing, Mr Mohammad’s brother, Jamshid, said witnesses and others involved in the operation should also be scrutinised in an open court.
“There were other people with him. It was a complete military patrol ,” he said.
“Several aircraft landed here.”
Family still in grief
The family of Dad Mohammad has no photos by which to remember him. Instead, they thumb the blood-stained clothing that he wore when he was killed.
They keep the tattered scarf and waistcoat under stones that mark out his resting place in a barren graveyard overlooking his village of Deh Jawz-e Hasanzai.
According to his family, Dad Mohammad managed to run the household despite a condition that stunted growth in one leg.
Mr Mohammad had two daughters — a newborn and a toddler at the time of his death — who now have no memory of him.
Jamshid was just a teenager. In response to the killing, he took up arms with the Taliban.
He said the grief drove his parents to misery and illness.
“My father has become so debilitated because of his sorrows, he said.
“It’s the same situation with my mother, who is all the time on medication. We suffered financial damage in the millions [in Afghan currency].”
‘Not an impossible task’
The killing of Mr Mohammad was examined as part of a four-year inquiry by the Inspector-General of the ADF into alleged war crimes, led by NSW Supreme Court judge Major General Paul Brereton.
In November 2020, the Brereton inquiry recommended that, where there was credible information that an Afghan national had been unlawfully killed, Australia should compensate their family without waiting for the establishment of criminal liability.
However, more than three years later, the issue remains unresolved.
The federal government blames legal and logistical issues stemming from the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the closure of the Australian embassy in Kabul.
In a letter seen by the ABC, Defence Minister Richard Marles also says “it is not safe or practicable to identify and locate individuals to whom compensation recommendations relate (noting that the [Brereton] Report did not provide sufficient identifying details)”.
However, the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) — an organisation seeking prosecutions for alleged war crimes — told the ABC the minister’s excuse was not acceptable.
“It might be difficult to access those communities, but the government should work harder,” ACIJ executive director Rawan Arraf said.
“It’s been shown that those families are able to be located and contacted. Journalists have been able to do it, so it’s not an impossible task.
“It’s something [the government is] required and obligated to do, not just because it’s a recommendation that was made by the inquiry, but because it’s the right thing to do.”
Ms Arraf said the call by Dad Mohammad’s family for more prosecutions against the ADF was “reasonable”.
The Defence Department and Mr Marles did not respond to the ABC’s questions before publication deadline.
In a heavily redacted report, the Brereton inquiry recommended 19 soldiers be referred for criminal investigation.
A special body — the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) — was set up to run the criminal investigations.
Last month, a Senate Estimates hearing was told that the OSI was investigating between 40 and 50 alleged offences.
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