Phil Shiner

Phil Shiner

In a HARDtalk interview first broadcast on 9 April 2008 Stephen Sackur talks to the human rights lawyer Phil Shiner.

Are British forces in war zones overseas bound by the highest standards of human rights enshrined in British law?

Phil Shiner is a human rights lawyer who is locked in a legal battle with the British Government on behalf of Iraqis alleging abuse by British forces.

He says he has no trust in the British system of military justice; it does not work because there is no independent oversight.

The military themselves investigate allegations of abuse and torture by British soldiers.

He maintains that when the state is implicated in abuse or torture there has to be an independent inquiry under the provisions of the Human Rights Act.

Phil Shiner alleges a cover up over the death of Baha Musa, an Iraqi killed while being held by British forces.

One soldier was given a twelve month sentence but others who pleaded not guilty were found not guilty and still, he says, no one has a clue as to how Baha Musa died and who inflicted the 93 injuries found on his body.

Mr Shiner is alarmed that the British army seems to have reintroduced practices such as hooding and keeping prisoners in stress positions that have been banned in Britain since 1972.

He has won a judicial review of the case of Khuder Al Sweady, the uncle of a man who died while being held by British soldiers.

Mr Shiner represents five people who say they witnessed the execution of twenty Iraqis by British soldiers in May 2004.

The case has been investigated several times but the High Court will now decide whether it should be the subject of an independent inquiry.

HARDtalk is broadcast on BBC World at 03:30 GMT, 08:30 GMT, 14:30 GMT, 20:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT.

Hardtalk can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 04:30 & 23:30.