By Belad Al-karkhey in Sydney

The case against an ex-SAS soldier accused of committing a war crime in Afghanistan has been delayed after thousands of items of fresh evidence were unearthed.

Oliver Jordan Schulz, 42, was arrested in March 2023 after a man complained to the Australian Defence Force that the elite soldier had shot his son in the head.

Schulz allegedly approached the 25- or 26-year-old, dad Mohammad, in a wheat field in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province and fired three shots at the man while he was on his back with his hands and knees raised.

More than 20,000 items of fresh evidence were brought to the attention of Magistrate Susan Horan when his case was called at Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

A police prosecutor requested that the matter be adjourned until both parties have been able to look through the extensive materials.

With a number of interested parties involved and the need to determine what information was classified, the court heard the case was not ready to proceed to trial.

Any documents or other evidence would need to be organised so that it was not “overwhelming” for the parties to understand, the prosecutor said.

Ms Horan agreed to adjourn until mid-September to give both the defence and prosecutors enough time to go through the evidence.

Schulz was released on bail a week after his arrest when a magistrate found he faced a high risk of Taliban attack if he remained behind bars.

He is the first former or serving Australian Defence Force member to be charged with a war crime-related murder.

There were about 40 investigations under way as part of an Australian Federal Police and Office of the Special Investigator joint probe into potential war crimes in Afghanistan, documents tendered in a Federal Court civil case previously showed.

Schulz’s case is listed for further mention on July 2.