Secret hearing for ‘witch-hunt’ lawyer

A LAWYER charged by his professional body over baseless claims against British troops will have his disciplinary hearing held in secret.

Phil Shiner has won the right to have the next stage of his disciplinary case heard behind closed doors. And the public will not know when a case management hearing into Mr Shiner is taking place because the hearing is likely to be listed anonymously.

His legal bid for secrecy came as his firm, Public Interest Lawyers, submitted four new cases against soldiers to the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) last month.

A separate inquiry has also taken on two new cases – likely to cost British taxpayers £200,000 each – which could lead to dozens of soldiers being dragged through the courts. Ihat has now been passed 3,281 allegations of criminal activity by British troops from legal firms PIL and Leigh Day. Around 900 of those were thrown out.

The Daily Mail, which has campaigned for an end to the witch-hunt against troops, is fighting the secrecy claim by Mr Shiner, who made his name suing the Government at taxpayers’ expense.

Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British forces in Afghanistan, said: ‘It is absolutely wrong this should be held in secret.’