Australian ex-soldier charged with murder of Afghan civilian

A former SAS soldier accused of killing an Afghan civilian during a mission in southern Afghanistan more than a decade ago has been arrested and charged with the war crime of murder.

Oliver Schulz, 41, was arrested by Australian federal police and NSW police in the southern highlands of New South Wales. He is expected to appear in the Queanbeyan local court on Tuesday morning.

In a statement, the Australian federal police said he would be accused of murder of an Afghan man while deployed with the Australian defence force to Afghanistan.

Footage from the ABC's Four Corners program shows an Australian trooper, allegedly Schulz, shooting a prone Afghan man, lying with his hands up, in a wheat field in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.

Schulz was a trooper with the SAS'3 Squadron, serving in Rotation XVII in 2012, serving as a trooper with the SAS's 3 Squadron.

Schulz's arrest was the result of a four-year investigation by the Australian defence force's inspector general, Maj Gen Paul Brereton, which found credible evidence to support the allegations that 39 Afghan civilians were unlawfully killed by Australian special forces soldiers.

The Office of the Special Investigator was set up by the government to investigate Brereton report's findings for criminal investigation.

The Office of the Special Investigator and the AFP are working together to investigate allegations of criminal crimes under Australian law related to breaches of the laws of armed conflict by Australian defence force personnel in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. The head of the OSI said last month that the agency was investigating between 40 and 50 alleged offences by Australian special forces soldiers in the Afghan conflict.