SYDNEY (AP) — The only Australian soldier to be charged with a war crime in Afghanistan pleaded not guilty Friday, but a prosecutor said he is unlikely to stand trial before 2027.

Oliver Schulz, 44, is accused of shooting Afghan man Dad Mohammad three times in the head in Uruzgan province wheat field in May 2012.

Schulz made his first appearance in the New South Wales state Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday and pleaded not guilty to the war crime of murder.

A trial date would usually be set on such an appearance, but national security concerns have prevented prosecutors and defense lawyers from seeing much of the evidence against the former Special Air Service Regiment elite soldier.

“There is no realistic prospect of a trial beginning in 2026,” prosecutor Sean Flood told Justice Peter

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