Solicitor Phil Shiner (pictured), best known for a series of controversial cases against the British Army, was struck off in February. The charges of professional misconduct against Shiner arose from the Al-Sweady inquiry, which was established to investigate the allegation that British troops murdered up to 20 Iraqi civilians at a checkpoint near Basra in May 2004. In a damning report, the inquiry, which cost £31m, found that the allegations of murder were ‘wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility’.

In an interview by Catherine Baksi published in Legal Action in March 2015, after the results of the inquiry were announced, Shiner was unrepentant, saying he had ‘done nothing wrong’. He denied that he had used an agent to canvass potential claimants in Iraq and had failed to disclose a document, which had led to the withdrawal of legal aid. Shiner subsequently admitted to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) the use of a middleman in Iraq to find potential claimants, but continued to deny that he had deliberately withheld evidence.

Shiner had built his reputation by taking up the case of Baha Mousa. The Iraqi hotel worker was arrested as a suspected insurgent and died while being held for interrogation by the army in September 2003. An inquiry found that Mousa and other civilian prisoners had been subject to an ‘appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence’ by the army and that the Ministry of Defence was guilty of ‘corporate failure’. Responding to the findings in a statement to the House of Commons, the then defence secretary, Liam Fox, said what had happened to Mousa and the other detainees was ‘deplorable, shocking and shameful’.

Following a two-day hearing, which Shiner claimed he was too ill to attend, the SDT found him guilty of 22 charges of misconduct. He was ordered to make an interim downpayment of £250,000 towards the full costs of the prosecution.

Responding to the tribunal decision, LAG director Steve Hynes said: ‘I fear that Shiner’s complete disgrace has made the job of human rights lawyers and campaigners more difficult, but we must not allow the failings of one man to be used as a pretext by those in power to avoid accountability.’

On 10 February, just over a week after the SDT’s decision in the Shiner case was announced, the government moved to shut down the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT). IHAT had been established in 2010 to investigate over 3,000 claims made by Iraqis against the army, the majority of which were brought by Shiner’s firm, Public Interest Lawyers.

Solicitors from Leigh Day, the large London-based human rights firm, are also facing charges of misconduct arising out of the Al-Sweady inquiry. An SDT hearing regarding these cases was due to start in early March (see also page 8 of this issue).