War crimes investigator and AFP ask corruption commission to probe Ben Roberts-Smith leak

The federal government’s special investigator for war crimes allegations and the Australian federal police have asked the anti-corruption commission to investigate media leaks about the arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith.

Arrested at Sydney airport on 7 April, the Victoria Cross recipient 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”.

Chris Moraitis, the director-general of the Office of the Special Investigator, told Senate estimates on Tuesday night he was surprised journalists had prior knowledge of the arrest, conducted jointly with the federal police.

The two organisations have referred possible unauthorised disclosures to the National Anti-corruption commission (Nacc) and are awaiting a response.

Asked how the media found out about the pending arrest ahead of time, Moraitis said: “Good question.”

“It’s a matter that concerns me. The media seem to have been privy to things, and therefore we’re taking steps to ascertain what happened there.”

Under questioning by Liberal senator Dave Sharma, Moraitis said his office was aware of journalists present on the morning of the arrest, “because we saw media on the morning, around various places”.

“I can say that the AFP and I have written to the to the Nacc about this, asking them to consider and to provide information about that … we believe there’s been an unauthorised disclosure.”

“It surprised me that that would happen, because we’ve usually been pretty good on keeping a low profile.”

Moraitis said the Nacc was yet to respond to the request.

The five charges against Roberts-Smith relate to three incidents during his deployments with the SAS to Australia’s two-decade, ultimately unsuccessful mission to Afghanistan.

The circumstances and location of the arrest has prompted political debate in recent weeks. The federal police distributed video of the 47-year-old being taken from a plane on the tarmac, accompanied by officers.

In separate questioning earlier in the hearing, Moraitis said his office had informed the office of the attorney-general, Michelle Rowland, that the arrest was set to take place that day.

No operational details, such as the location of the arrest, were disclosed to Rowland’s office ahead of time.