Who is Oliver Schulz? Wikipedia, Biography, Age, SAS Veteran, Charged
Oliver Schulz Wikipedia – Oliver Schulz Biography
Oliver Schulz, a decorated former SAS soldier shown in a Four Corners story shooting an Afghan man in a wheat field, has become the first Australian serviceman or veteran to be charged with a war crime under Australian law.
A former trooper was arrested by the Australian Federal Police at Jindabyne in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains this morning after a years-long investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
Age
He is 41 years old.
SAS Veteran Charged
In a statement, the AFP said it would be alleged he murdered an Afghan man while deployed to Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
Mr. Schulz has been charged with the war crime of murder under the Commonwealth Criminal Code and is expected to appear at Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court later.
His charge, the ABC understands, relates to the shooting death of Afghan man Dad Mohammad during an ADF raid in May 2012 in Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan.
That killing was revealed in March 2020 by ABC’s Four Corners program, which broadcast footage showing Mr. Schulz shooting Mr. Mohammad while the Afghan man lay on the ground.
If found guilty, Mr. Schulz could face life in prison.
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According to international law experts, his arrest marks a historic shift in response to suspected military wrongdoing in Australia and among Western allies, who have avoided holding war crimes trials in civilian courts.
“It’s unprecedented,” said University of Tasmania law professor Tim McCormack, a special adviser on war crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor in The Hague.
“We’ve never had a situation in the past where a member of the ADF, either current or former, has been charged with a war crime and slated for trial in a civilian court.
“I suspect that this will be an important precedent for the British, for the Canadians, for the New Zealanders, and, hopefully, for other state parties [to the ICC].”
Mr. Schulz was awarded the Commendation for Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan, where he completed multiple tours.
The ADF stood him down after ABC Investigations, and Four Corners revealed the killing.
War Crimes
The Four Corners program, Killing Field, broadcast explosive footage from a helmet camera worn by the dog handler from Mr. Schulz’s patrol.
It shows a SAS dog mauling Mr. Mohammad in a field before the dog is called off, and Mr. Schulz is seen training his weapon on the man.
Mr. Mohammad was a father of two, in his 20s, from the village of Deh Jawz-e Hasanzai.
Four Corners identified the dead man and tracked down his father and brother during its investigation.
“They can arrest him,” his father, Abul Malik, told the program in 2020. “Why did they have to kill him?”
“He was married and had two daughters,” said Dad Mohammad’s brother, Jamshid.
“The youngest one was about a month old and the other was three years old at the time.”
Four Corners also revealed that the ADF had investigated the killing months after the 2012 incident, following complaints from Afghan villagers.
However, ADF investigators cleared Mr. Schulz after being told Mr. Mohammad had been “tactically maneuvering,” was carrying a radio, and had been shot in self-defense.
