A CONTROVERSIAL human rights lawyer, once lauded for exposing torture by former Queen’s Lancashire Regiment soldiers, has been struck off over his murder claims involving other Iraq War veterans.

Phil Shiner, who ran Birmingham-based Public Interest Lawyers (PiL), represented the family of Baha Mousa, the Iraqi waiter who lost his life in Basra at the hands of Lancashire troops in 2003.

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But it was Shiner’s later involvement in the later Al-Sweady Inquiry, called to investigate further deaths following the Battle of Danny Boy the following year, which triggered his downfall.

A total of 12 misconduct charges were found proved against him by the Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), including paying ‘sweeteners’ to an Iraqi ‘fixer’, so he would change his inquiry evidence.

Shiner had previously admitted to nine allegations of ‘acting without integrity’, covering claims he had made unsolicited approaches to potential clients.

One of the key features of the case was Shiner’s assertion, at a 2008 press conference, he ‘recklessly’ claimed the British Army had unlawfully killed, tortured and mistreated Iraqi civilians during the Battle of Danny Boy.

The SDT was told an agreement between Shiner and PiL, and an ‘agent’ in Basra, to drum up extra business, was illegal.

He was also involved in the ‘cold calling’ of potential victims of Iraq War violence.

Speaking after the disciplinary case, Colonel James Coote, who was a major stationed in Basra at the time, said the false claims made against British troops after the battle had been ‘extremely stressful and demoralising’.

Defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: “Phil Shiner made soldiers’ lives a misery by pursuing false claims of torture and murder - now he should apologise.

“We will study any implications for outstanding legal claims closely.”

Shiner has claimed that he was ‘under stress’ and not responsible for his actions when he made some of the decisions which had brought him before the disciplinary body.

Nicola Lucking, chairman of the SDT panel, who also ordered Shiner to pay a £250,000 interim costs order, said: “We have come to the conclusion the appropriate sanction is a strike off.”