Senior partner Martyn Day ‘did not think there was a shred of truth’ to allegations that a key client was a member of the Iraqi insurgent group Mahdi army, a tribunal into alleged misconduct heard today.

Day, of human rights firm Leigh Day, denied that he should have called for an immediate investigation into claims that Khuder Al-Sweady had threatened the firm’s agent in Iraq and was a senior member of the militia group.

Questioned by Timothy Dutton QC, representing the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Day was pointed to emails he had been sent by both Leigh Day solicitor Anna Crowther and a man named Mazine Younis, who had been acting as a middleman for the firm. These emails alleged that Al-Sweady had made threats of violence to the firm’s agent in Iraq, Abu Jamal, and was in fact a ‘senior member’ of the Mahdi army.

‘When there was a clear conflict of interest between two clients you should have conducted an investigation, should you not?’ Dutton asked Day.

 Day, despite being pointed to emails sent to colleagues in which he reportedly wrote ‘who knows what the truth of all this is’ and ‘so what if he [Al-Sweady] is connected to the Mahdi army’, said he ‘did not believe a word of the claims’. He described Al-Sweady as a fiery character who would ‘occasionally lose his cool’ but said that incidents were ‘always forgotten about moments later’.

Day said he felt the claims by Younis may have constituted part of a ‘turf war’ fuelled because he wanted more of a role in bringing cases. Younis was useful in getting passports and documents sorted, Day said, but that Al-Sweady was the person used to bring in the clients, because they felt ‘he was their man’.

Leigh Day the firm, senior partners Martyn Day and Sapna Malik, as well as solicitor Anna Crowther, deny a total of 47 allegations of misconduct over their role in bringing claims that British troops ‘mutilated, tortured and killed’ Iraqi civilians in 2004. The subsequent Al-Sweady public inquiry found the claims to be fabricated.

Leigh Day, as well as Day, Malik and Crowther, all deny wrongdoing. The hearing continues.