Victory for open justice as Iraq witch-hunt lawyer will face charges in public
A LAWYER who has spent more than a decade hounding British soldiers has dropped his demand that a hearing into claims that he drummed up cases be held in secret.
Phil Shiner – who made his name suing the Government at taxpayers’ expense – abandoned his fight to be granted anonymity at the upcoming six-week disciplinary hearing.
The accusations against Mr Shiner and his firm, Public Interest Lawyers, will now be heard in public in a huge victory for soldiers who have suffered years of torment.
Mr Shiner’s decision follows a legal fight by the Daily Mail and other newspapers which argued that the case should be heard on the grounds of open justice.
The Birmingham-based human rights lawyer and boss of the now defunct firm PIL, faces a lengthy charge sheet over alleged breaches of the solicitors’ code of conduct. Details of the charges put forward by legal watchdog the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority will now be made public in the coming weeks.
They are understood to centre on his role in the £31million Al-Sweady war crimes inquiry and claims he used a Basra agent who touted for business in the aftermath of the Iraq War. The Al Sweady inquiry looked at allegations of murder and torture by British forces but exonerated them and branded the claims made by clients of PIL and another law firm as ‘deliberate and calculated lies’.
Mr Shiner’s firm had handed 2,470 allegations of criminality by British troops to the Iraq Historical Allegations Team before PIL shut down in August this year after its legal aid was pulled.
The majority of the cases handed to Ihat – funded by taxpayers at a cost of £57million – will be thrown out in the coming months.
Mr Shiner, who forced hundreds of soldiers to be put through endless legal battles on behalf of suing Iraqis, said he was too unwell to have his hearing in public.
But lawyers acting for him have relented and said they would not seek the secret hearings after this newspaper fought the application.
Last night Martin McGing, a former guardsman in the Irish Guards, who faced three investigations over the death of an Iraqi looter in 2003, said it was finally Mr Shiner’s turn to be in the dock.
He had already been cleared of manslaughter by a court marital but his case was handed to Ihat by PIL in 2010, starting a five-year investigation. The case was thrown out.
Mr McGing, 33, said: ‘We have been forced to go through years of questioning and had our names dragged through the mud. His actions have caused so much misery and now it is his turn to be questioned. It is outrageous the idea of allowing Mr Shiner to have the case against him heard in secret was even entertained.
‘The fact he has been forced to drop this demand means we can now hear every detail of the charges against him.’
PIL, which received millions of pounds in legal aid, was investigated by the SRA following a complaint by the Ministry of Defence.
After an 18-month investigation, the watchdog decided to refer the case on to its disciplinary tribunal over ‘serious allegations of professional misconduct’.
The SRA decided to charge Mr Shiner and lawyer John Dickinson, who represented Iraqi claimants. A tribunal in London will now hear the case against the pair and decide whether they should be struck off.
Mr Shiner is also under investigation by the National Crime Agency and could face criminal charges over allegations his firm ‘bribed’ Iraqis to bring claims against UK troops.
The Mail has campaigned for an end to the witch-hunt against British troops, which has seen hundreds of serving and former troops hounded relentlessly over incidents which happened a decade ago. Ihat is currently still examining 1,009 claims of wrongdoing – down from 3,367 – a figure which is expected to drop to just 60 by next summer. No one has been charged with any crimes.
Mr Shiner and PIL have denied any wrongdoing.