Birmingham based human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, who sued the Government at taxpayers’ expense and spent more than a decade hounding British soldiers has dropped his demand that an upcoming 6 week disciplinary hearing into claims that he drummed up cases be held in secret.
The accusations against Mr Shiner and his firm, Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), 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 UK newspapers which argued that the case should be heard on the grounds of open justice.
The lengthy charge sheet, over alleged breaches of the solicitors’ code of conduct, 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 (IHAT) 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.
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