Phil Shiner, a disgraced human rights lawyer, is no longer allowed to practice law after being struck off [BBC report] Thursday after having 12 charges of misconduct proved against him. Shiner raised a myriad of allegations that British troops tortured and killed Iraqis during the Iraq War. An earlier investigation [materials] found Shiner had deliberately fabricated the claims. He had previously admitted to nine ethical charges and to acting recklessly.

Allegations of crimes committed by UK soldiers in the Iraq war have been treated as suspect. In September a policing unit in Afghanistan set up to investigate alleged war crimes committed by UK soldiers received around 600 complaints [JURIST report] of ill treatment and abuse occurring between 2005 and 2013. UK Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her concern that the allegations may be false claims against soldiers. In July the International Criminal Court announced [JURIST report] the decision not to prosecute Tony Blair for war crimes related to the 2003 Iraq War. In May the UK Supreme Court unanimously rejected claims [JURIST report] made by Iraqi civilians that they were extrajudicially detained and physically abused by British forces. In 2005 a prosecutor argued at the opening of a much-anticipated [JURIST report] British court-martial that seven British paratroopers patrolling in southern Iraq in 2003 killed an Iraqi civilian and abused others after stopping a truck carrying them three weeks after hostilities had officially ended. This was the first trial of British soldiers for the killing of an Iraqi civilian.