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Miklos Bolza

Roberts-Smith appeals for chance to move home with kids

Ben Roberts-Smith wants to move home and be with his children while on bail. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)

Decorated former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith will apply to a court to move home and be with his children while he fights allegations of war crimes.

The 47-year-old was arrested in April and charged with murdering or ordering the murders of five unarmed detainees while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

He appeared before Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, when his lawyers applied to vary his bail.

Alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith leaves Downing Centre Court where he's facing a bail review. (Kat Wong/AAP VIDEO)

“Today is just about being able to see my children and moving back to where we actually live," he told reporters outside court.

"That's what we're focused on today."

The Victoria Cross recipient is also expected to ask the court if he can attend two formal military ceremonies and a social function afterwards.

Prosecutor Simon Buchen SC said he would not oppose the 47-year-old moving home or attending the ceremonies as long as he did not talk to witnesses in the war crimes case.

But he told Judge Susan Horan he would oppose the SAS soldier attending the social function.

The judge will oversee a hearing on the matter on Tuesday afternoon.

Roberts-Smith has not entered pleas to any of the charges but has said he will use the upcoming trial to clear his name.

Ben Roberts-Smith
Ben Roberts-Smith has vowed to clear his name. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)

He was released on bail in April after his father Len Roberts-Smith - a former Western Australia Supreme Court judge - paid a $250,000 surety.

Australia's most decorated living soldier is accused of machine-gunning Afghan prisoner Mohammed Essa and ordering the execution of his son Ahmadullah to "blood the rookie" during a raid at a compound in April 2009.

The then-SAS soldier allegedly placed firearms on the bodies to falsely claim they were enemy combatants, court documents said.

In August 2012, at the village of Darwan, Roberts-Smith is accused of kicking a hand-cuffed man named Ali Jan off a 10-metre cliff before ordering that he be dragged to a creek bed and shot.

Two months later at Syahchow, he allegedly lined up two prisoners in a corn field before shooting one of them with another soldier.

He ordered a subordinate to shoot the other prisoner before throwing a grenade on the bodies to cover up what he had done, prosecutors allege.

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