A former human rights lawyer was spared prison on Tuesday after he was jailed after pleading guilty to fraud charges including false abuse claims made against war veterans.
Phil Shiner, the chief solicitor of the law firm Public Interest Lawyers, was given a two-year suspended sentence after being convicted of misconduct and dishonesty, which involved false allegations against fighters. Iraq war
Judge Christopher Hehir said Shiner, 67, was “obviously dishonest”, but added that the former lawyer was not “corrupted by greed”.
Sentencing Shiner at Southwark Crown Court, south London, Hehir said: “He took his client’s case diligently and got his judgement.”
Richard Thomas KC, mitigating, said Shiner had “suffered a professional collapse”.
Shiner made an application to the Legal Services Commission in 2007 He applied for £200,000 in legal aid funding for his firm including clients Khuder Al-Sweadyin an application for judicial review.
According to the National Criminals The agency has received around £3m in contract value and is following Al-Swedy’s investigation into allegations of abuse and wrongful killing of Iraqi nationals by British soldiers costing 244 million.
The inquiry found that Al-Sweady’s nephew, Hamid Al-Sweady, was killed “in full” combat and was a “willing and active” participant in the attack on British forces. He concluded that the most serious rights of killing and torture were “completely false” and the product of “deliberate lies”.
In Tuesday’s decision, Hehir told the court: “The defendant is not convicted of everything that happened during the investigation of Al-Swady, and it cannot be said that the judiciary’s investigation of Al-Sweady represents a loss in any sense.”
They were part of the judicial process, which in the end led to some very firm conclusions.
When filing an application with the Legal Services Commission, Shiner did not disclose that the attorney had been cold calling on his behalf and with his knowledge of making repeated approaches to potential clients in Iraq.
He also did not indicate that he was referring to the payment of fees, which is not permitted as part of the contract for obtaining legal aid.
Shiner, whose firm was based in Birmingham, became a noted figure in the legal world, and was often quoted in the Guardian and Observer.
He was named human rights lawyer of the year 2004 for his “exceptional skill, tenacity and dedication to fighting for justice.” In 2007, the Law Society was named solicitor of the year.
The tribunal reported in December 2016 that Shiner had admitted eight allegations of misconduct, including one charge of misconduct in a 2008 press conference where he claimed the British army had unlawfully killed, tortured and abused Iraqi civilians at the Battle of Danny Boy, near Amaram in southern Iraq on May 14. in 2004
Splendor admitted to nine more charges, accepting that he had acted dishonestly, but denying dishonesty.
The concessions include that he encouraged and ordered the agent – referred to as Z – to give unsolicited direct access to potential clients from the 2014 fight for Danny Boy, originating at Amaram in Iraq; that Z provided him with pecuniary advantages in order to persuade him to change his testimony about how the clients were known; and that on several occasions he authorized, procured and approved the payment of Z’s unpaid fees, including 25,000 pounds on March 30, 2009. For this charge, he denied the fee for sponsorship purposes.