SYDNEY — Ben Roberts-Smith received permission to attend the opening of the Anzac Hall at the Australian War Memorial under modified bail conditions on June 23. Judge Susan Horan granted the request to vary his bail conditions but stipulated that Roberts-Smith was prohibited from discussing his criminal case or the case against Oliver Schulz during his attendance. Prosecutor Simon Buchen did not oppose Roberts-Smith's attendance at the memorial opening.

Roberts-Smith, who was arrested in April, was charged with murdering or ordering the murders of five unarmed detainees in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. He has not entered pleas to these criminal charges. Roberts-Smith was released on bail in April after his father, Len Roberts-Smith, paid a $250,000 surety. Len Roberts-Smith is a former Western Australian supreme court judge. Judge Horan denied Roberts-Smith's request to attend a military parade at the Singleton army base and a Newcastle after-party due to the assessed risk that he would communicate with Oliver Schulz.

Oliver Schulz has been accused of unlawfully murdering an Afghan national while deployed in Afghanistan in 2012. Prosecutors allege Roberts-Smith machine-gunned Afghan prisoner Mohammed Essa and ordered the execution of Mohammed Essa's son, Ahmadullah, during a raid in April 2009. They also allege he placed firearms on the victims to falsely classify them as enemy combatants. Prosecutors further allege Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed man named Ali Jan off a 10-metre cliff and ordered Jan to be dragged to a creek bed and shot in August 2012. Additionally, prosecutors allege Roberts-Smith lined up two prisoners in a corn field, shot one alongside another soldier, ordered a subordinate to execute the second, and threw a grenade on the bodies.

Roberts-Smith denied the allegations in a statement and affirmed that he always acted within his values, training, and rules of engagement. "Today is just about being able to see my family and moving back to where we actually live. That's what we're focused on today," Roberts-Smith told reporters outside the court.