Police have been asked to investigate death threats against the human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, who has led attempts to prosecute British soldiers for alleged war crimes in Iraq.
The intimidation directed against Shiner’s Birmingham firm, Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), and his family has been condemned by the Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales. The level of abuse has risen since cases relating to the treatment of Iraqi detainees between 2003 and 2008 were referred to the international criminal court in the Hague.
The firm’s withdrawal in March of other claims made at the al-Sweady inquiry – that British troops killed unarmed civilians they had captured and taken back to an army base – has added to the furore surrounding the Iraqi cases.
The Law Society has now written to Chris Sims, the chief constable of West Midlands police, and the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, requesting that the firm be protected and an inquiry launched.
Shiner said: “The threats made against PIL, my family and me are distressing, to say the least. It is apparent that some people object to and disapprove of the work carried out by PIL, but the directing of abuse at PIL for the legitimate work we do to uphold the rule of law in a democratic country cannot continue unchallenged.”
It is not the first time Shiner has been targeted. An earlier police investigation into threats against him resulted in a prosecution under the Malicious Communications Act in 2010.
In a letter sent to barristers’ chambers in London this week, PIL claimed that the abuse was linked to negative articles in the media about the firm’s work, with headlines such as “As we denigrate our troops, lawyers get rich“.
The letter also accuses “the government, at the highest level” of hostility “in the hope, perhaps, that something untoward will happen to him”. It also raises the possibility that some of the abuse may have come from those associated with the English Defence League, which, it says, has a large membership of ex-soldiers.
The letter mentions a picture that showed Shiner with a rope round his neck, saying: “Anti-British scumbag socialist lawyer”.
The letter also refers to the sequence of events that led up to the killing of the Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane in 1989 and ministerial statements about solicitors who were “unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA“.
PIL’s letter states: “[We] do not want to draw a direct comparison between the climate in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and the current climate in the UK with regard to solicitors representing Iraqis on the legal aid fund.
“However, Phil has repeatedly dismissed these threats and has finally awoken to the fact that there are similarities, which we must take as warning signs.”
Nicholas Fluck, president of the Law Society, said: “Every citizen in this country enjoys the protection of the rule of law. That is a precious right. Those rights depend on lawyers presenting their client’s cases without fear or favour, no matter how unpopular or unattractive some might [consider] those clients or the cases brought before the courts.
“We are all the poorer and less free if the lawyers representing such cases are threatened or placed under duress, as Mr Shiner has experienced.
“It is precisely because of the role that lawyers play in free societies that under the UN’s basic principles on the role of lawyers, governments must ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation. All lawyers should be able to carry out their legitimate work freely and without fear of reprisal.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We totally condemn any threats of violence [that] may have been made, but it is ridiculous to blame government ministers. It is only right that the department robustly defends the reputation of the armed forces and seeks to make sure no taxpayers’ money is wasted, especially where dubious cases are brought.”
The West Midlands police are investigating allegations of 17 “malicious” messages; one seems to be racially motivated.