Lord Hermer pursued 'witch hunt' against innocent British troops | Unpacked

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]Lord Herma, Starmer's closest ally, pursued British army veterans in one of the most notorious witch hunts in military history. The Telegraph's revelation about the attorney general follows an investigation where we analyzed more than 25,000 documents.

[00:00:21]It shows he played a key role in a case that left decorated war heroes facing bogus accusations of murder and assault.

[00:00:30]Herma or Lord Herma as he's now known pressed for compensation of hundreds of thousands of pounds despite mounting evidence that the clients were lying.

[00:00:41]Sakir Stalmer is already under pressure for his treatment of army veterans who fought in Northern Ireland. Now we can reveal that his law chief supported Iranianbacked terrorists against British troops for years. Let's get into the timeline. In May 2004, the British troops fighting in Iraq were ambushed by around 100 Iraqi members of the Mardi army, an Iranianbacked Shia military.

[00:01:08]The heavily outnumbered soldiers fought off that ambush in a heroic victory that became known as the Battle of Dannyboy.

[00:01:16]But in the weeks afterwards, conflicting reports emerged. Iraqi families claimed that their relatives had actually been captured alive before being assaulted and murdered at a nearby British base.

[00:01:30]And a number of surviving Iraqi prisoners alleged that they were mistreated during questioning. One man called Kuda Aluedi claimed that his nephew had been executed. These individuals began to be represented by British law firms Lee Day and public interest lawyers. The allegations culminated in a dramatic press conference.

[00:01:53]A lawyer Phil Shiner of public interest lawyers can be seen speaking here.

[00:01:58]British soldiers may well have been responsible for the executions of up to 20 Iraqi civilians, the torture of many of these 20 before death, the torture of nine other survivors, and horrific bodily mutilations prior to some of the executions.

[00:02:18]>> What they said was a big deal. It forced the government to launch an inquiry into the false allegations called the Al Swedi inquiry. documents uncovered by the telegraph show Lord Herma advised the solicitors behind the press conference.

[00:02:34]He said, "Do you need to be slightly more explicit in the press release about evidence raising serious concerns of execution of prisoners in order to generate sufficient interest? Or will the Today interview naturally bring in the punters later that morning?" But he was aware that the allegations might not be true. In an email, he advised the solicitors to keep wiggle room if the killings did not in fact happen. Let's just take that in for a moment. The now attorney general, the government's principal legal adviser, knew there were credibility concerns over the legitimacy of serious allegations against British troops and yet he continued to pursue them. Anyway, let's dig back into the timeline. We can see in the year Lee Day started to look into the claims, the firm allegedly received a document that could have seriously undermined their legal case. It reveals that the captured Iraqis were in fact members of the Mardi army, not innocent civilians, as the firm had claimed. In plainer terms, they were terrorists. This was a really important document, but lawyers at Lee Day say they only became aware of its significance in August 2013. The legal firm were investigated over their role in the Alswuy claims, but were found to have done nothing wrong. Now, fast forward to 2008. The documents show that by this time, Lord Herma is working with Lee Day and assigned to the case, pursuing civil damage claims for the Iraqis involved. What's shown here are the accounts given by the Iraqis themselves.

[00:04:23]You can see here at the bottom apparel legal left notes that raise questions over the information such as why ride to a remote location for a 2minut shopping expedition and dismiss your taxi or this quote is it likely that a farmer would not recognize the farmer's fields adjacent to his own.

[00:04:49]We can see then that the press conference occurs putting pressure on the government to launch an inquiry. By 2009, the public inquiry was set up by the then Labor government. Now, we can see that by February 2013, Lord Herma advised some of the Swedi claimants on a settlement offer from the MOD. Crucially, even though he knows there are problems with the evidence, Lord Herma is advising the claimants to make a higher counter offer. Just one month later, we can see the lawyers are getting worried about the way it's going at the public inquiry.

[00:05:29]Despite this, Lord Herma continues to represent the Iraqis.

[00:05:35]Later in the year, it gets even worse as the detainee list showing that some of the captured Iraqis were members of the Mardi army is presented publicly at the inquiry. The following year, the inquiry exonerated the British troops and found the Al Swedi claimments had made allegations that were the product of deliberate and calculated lies. But did these deeply concerning revelations lead Lord Herma to reconsider his decision to help sue British soldiers? No. In fact, we can reveal that in 2015, Herma was still insisting their detention claim was viable as a matter of law and regardless of credibility issues. Even if some of their accounts lack credibility, they were detained and so could potentially claim damages for their detention under the Human Rights Act. So, we've established a timeline of events and rifled through files to reveal that Lord Herma continued to represent the Iraqis despite the impact of the claims on British troops. But it's important to remember that among all of these documents, facts, and statements. At the center of this case are real people hurt by the allegations.

[00:06:52]And a lawyer representing the soldiers says that Lord Herma should face an investigation himself.