Human rights lawyer faces being struck off after admitting to misconduct
Phil Shiner, whose law firm Public Interest Lawyers brought murder and abuse claims against British troops, faces being struck off by the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal after admitting he paid a fixer thousands of pounds to find him cases.
Mr Shiner also admitted he acted recklessly by publicly claiming UK troops unlawfully killed, tortured and mistreated Iraqis.
One allegation concerned his claims at a press conference in February 2008, when he said British troops had killed and tortured Iraqi civilians at the 2004 so-called ‘Battle of Danny Boy’, in southern Iraq.
The tribunal heard Mr Shiner accepted he acted recklessly in saying Iraqis were taken alive and later murdered after the gun fight. The aftermath of the battle became a central point of a five-year investigation which ruled in 2014 that the allegations of murder and torture made against British soldiers by Iraqi detainees were “deliberate lies”.
Mr Shiner admitted failing to keep clients properly informed during the inquiry, but denied the claims he made were dishonest.
He also denied a further six allegations, including misleading the inquiry and the Legal Services Commission over legal aid grants.
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