The guilty plea of the former human rights lawyer Phil Shiner this week to charges of fraud is a story that deserves considerable attention. Shiner had tried to claim £200,000 in legal aid without disclosing that – in the breach of the rules – he had employed an agent to cold-call potential ‘victims’ of mistreatment at the hands of British service personnel in Iraq.
An inquiry held by the UK government in 2014 found that the allegations of abuse or violence which Shiner brought forward had little basis in fact: one fighter who was said to have been killed in custody by a British soldier was established to have died in battle, never captured alive. Yet the conclusion of the long case against Shiner – who was struck off as a solicitor seven years ago after his actions came to light – does little to solve an underlying problem: that laws established for civilian life are being inappropriately applied in war zones.
When the bullets are flying in a war zone, concepts of civilian law are suspended
Soldiers should not, of course, murder captives in cold blood, nor torture or mistreat them.
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