Australia’s most decorated living soldier was arrested on Tuesday and will be charged with five counts of war crime murders relating to the killing of unarmed civilians while on deployment in Afghanistan.

The man, whom police identified as a 47-year-old former Australian Defence Force member and media named as Ben Roberts-Smith, was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday morning.

He will be charged with five counts of war crimes in connection to the murder of five people in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, Australian Federal Police (AFP) said. The maximum penalty for each charge is life imprisonment.

Among the accusations reported were that Roberts-Smith had shot dead an unarmed Afghan teenager and kicked a handcuffed man off a cliff before ordering him to be shot dead.