Shiner acted dishonestly in bringing murder and torture claims against war veterans
A controversial human rights lawyer has been struck off after being found to have acted dishonestly in bringing murder and torture claims against British Iraq War veterans.
Phil Shiner, a Coventry solicitor who worked for the now-defunct Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), had 12 charges of misconduct proved against him by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
In five charges he was found to have acted dishonestly, including agreeing to pay “sweeteners” to a fixer, understood to be Abu Jamal, to persuade him to change his evidence to the £31 million Al-Sweady Inquiry.
Mr Shiner previously admitted nine allegations of acting without integrity, including that he made “unsolicited direct approaches” to potential clients.
He did not attend the hearing, having written to the tribunal to say he was unwell and could not afford to pay for a defence lawyer.
Mr Shiner was struck off the roll of solicitors.
The panel ordered him to pay interim costs of £250,000, with a full means test to determine further costs to follow.
The lawyer, who takes the title professor, came to public attention when he represented the Iraqi family of Baha Mousa, who was beaten to death by British soldiers.
He has launched many other high-profile legal actions against the Ministry of Defence relating to alleged human rights abuses involving UK armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His firm PIL brought forward the majority of allegations (2,470) considered by the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat).
PIL, of which Mr Shiner was sole director and 100% shareholder, closed down in August after being stripped of legal aid funding for breaching contractual requirements.
Mr Shiner’s former colleague at PIL, John Dickinson, denied a single charge of misconduct but this was found proved and he was given a reprimand and ordered to pay £2,000 in costs.
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 1:49 am