On Friday, an appeal in the Full Court of the Federal Court is expected to conclude after 10 days of arguments in open and closed court about a June decision tossing the war veteran’s lawsuit against three news outlets.

The 45-year-old is challenging findings that 2018 reports he was involved in the unlawful killings of four unarmed Afghan prisoners were substantially true.

His lawyers have argued that Justice Anthony Besanko made several critical errors when examining the cogency of the evidence presented to support the reported war crimes.

Roberts-Smith is seeking to show there was insufficient evidence to back the claims and the allegations were defamatory.

Lawyers for the Nine-owned The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age as well as The Canberra Times have argued in support of the judge’s findings, saying there was enough reliable proof to back up their claims.

Justice Besanko found Roberts-Smith ordered the execution of an elderly prisoner to “blood the rookie” during a raid on a compound known as Whiskey 108 on Easter Sunday 2009.

On the same day, he is also said to have dragged a man with a prosthetic leg outside the compound, throwing the man to the ground before machine-gunning him.

The judge found that on September 11, 2012, Roberts-Smith kicked a handcuffed prisoner off a cliff in the village of Darwan before dragging him over a creekbed and ordering his execution.

In October that year, the ex-SAS corporal also ordered another prisoner be shot and killed after a weapons cache was discovered in the village of Chinartu, the judge found.

Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged.

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– AAP