Tank chasing lawyers in cases against UK troops ‘knew clients were members of a Iraqi murder group’
Law firm Leigh Day is facing misconduct charges at a disciplinary tribunal
A GROUP of "tank chasing" lawyers in cases against British troops had evidence their clients were members of an Iraqi "murder" group, a tribunal has heard.
Law firm Leigh Day is facing misconduct charges over legal claims they brought of torture and murder by soldiers during the Iraq War, along with prohibited payments to a person called Mazin Younis.
There is also an allegation of improper conduct at a 2008 press conference involving disgraced lawyer Phil Shiner, where it was claimed that British soldiers had abused Iraqi civilians during a 2004 battle.
Representing the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Timothy Dutton QC said in his opening summary at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) in London that the allegations were "false" and should not have been "advanced in the public domain".
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"Over a period of more than seven years, Martyn Day, Sapna Malik and Leigh Day made and maintained allegations that soldiers in the British Army had murdered, tortured and mutilated Iraqi civilians," he added.
Mr Dutton said they continued to act for their clients when they had evidence, in the form of a document, that they were members of a militia associated with the Mahdi Army.
He drew attention to the "OMS detainee List", which he said had been in their possession from 2004 onwards, and which "undermined their clients' claims they were innocent bystanders in the Battle of Danny Boy".
He added: "It demonstrated that they were members of a murderous militia who had ambushed British soldiers."
The tribunal heard how it was "almost nine years" since they had first come into contact with the list, including an English translation, before this document was passed on to anyone else in August 2014.
Mr Dutton highlighted an email sent from Mr Day to Ms Malik and Ms Crowther in October 2013 about the OMS (Shia militia group Office of the Martyr Al Sadr) detainee List which he said contained "military stuff" and was something he had "never seen before".
Within the internal email he said its "relevance is patently obvious" and that within "one second" of reading the document its "massive significance" would have been clear, and had he read it he would have "packed the file away immediately".
Mr Dutton said if the list had been made available to others, it is unlikely that Mr Shiner's firm Public Interest Lawyers would have felt able to pursue the claim for legal aid, that legal aid would have been granted, and the long-running public Al-Sweady inquiry would have been ordered.
He said: "If the respondents had discharged their duties, British soldiers and their families would not have had to endure torment and years of worry arising from false allegations endorsed by solicitors and members of the profession, made not just in claims but to the world's media."
The £31 million Al-Sweady inquiry concluded in its final report that the conduct of some soldiers towards detainees breached the Geneva Convention.
But it was highly critical of the claims it was initially set up to investigate - that Iraqi detainees had been murdered, mutilated and tortured following the Battle of Danny Boy on May 14 2004 near Al Amarah in southern Iraq.
It found that British forces responded to a deadly ambush by insurgents with "exemplary courage, resolution and professionalism".
It suggested some of the detainees - all described as members or supporters of the Mahdi Army insurgent group - consciously lied about the most serious allegations to discredit the British armed forces.
Mr Day, Ms Malik and the law firm face 19 charges, while Ms Crowther faces one allegation of destroying a handwritten English translation of the detainee list.
The case continues.
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