• He is the first Australian serviceman or veteran to be prosecuted for a war crime.
• He was arrested on Monday in remote New South Wales (NSW).
• This is considered to be the first arrest related to the investigation.

Following an inquiry into potential war crimes in Afghanistan, a former Australian SAS member was charged with murder.

Oliver Schulz, 41, is the first Australian serviceman or veteran to be prosecuted with a war crime under Australian law.

The maximum term for this offense is life in prison.

He was arrested on Monday in remote New South Wales (NSW) and will appear in court on Tuesday. Mr Schulz is the individual referred to as Soldier C in a 2020 ABC Four Corners documentary uncovering alleged war crimes.

In 2012, the footage shows Soldier C shooting an Afghan guy in a wheat field in Uruzgan Province, southern Afghanistan.

The investigation was conducted by the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI), a body established to look into alleged war crimes following a four-year probe led by Army Reserve major general and NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton.

The Brereton Report, published in 2020, found “credible evidence” that Australian special soldiers unlawfully killed 39 Afghan civilians during the Afghan conflict.

It stated that authorities should examine 19 current or former special forces personnel for killings of “prisoners, farmers, or civilians” between 2009 and 2013.

This is considered to be the first arrest related to the investigation.

The Australian Defence Force blamed the crimes on an unregulated “warrior culture” among some personnel at the time.

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