He has also won damages claims for Colombian farmers against BP and represented four of the six men injured in the trials following the 2006 Northwick Park drug tests.
[9] BP denied that it "owed any relevant duty of care" to the claimants, stating that it "did not design, construct or operate the pipeline" and was "at no stage responsible for its maintenance."
"[citation needed] Marta Hinestroza, a local lawyer who was granted political asylum in the UK after being told that her name had appeared on a paramilitary hitlist, first brought the case to the attention of Leigh Day, who negotiated an out-of-court settlement for a separate group of farmers in 2006.
[citation needed] In November 2006, the High Court of Justice in London agreed to hear a group action by about 30,000 claimants from Côte d'Ivoire against Trafigura over the alleged dumping of toxic waste from the Probo Koala.
[12] The British law firm Leigh Day had brought one of the biggest group actions in legal history, seeking damages of £100 million.
[citation needed] Gouhourou protested the funds transfer and insisted that he was one of the fifty or so representatives of the many communities in Abidjan affected by the toxic waste.
[15] In the aftermath of the Gouhourou fraud case, the English High Court ruled that Leigh Day had been negligent in its management of the compensation payments.
[18] On 27 March 2008, the British Defence Secretary, Des Browne, admitted to "substantial breaches" of the European Convention of Human Rights over the murder of Baha Mousa.
[20] Following the battle of Danny Boy in May 2004, it was falsely alleged that British Soldiers captured 31 Iraqis following an ambush in May 2004, before killing 22 and leaving only nine injured survivors.
[2] On 25 November 2009, Bob Ainsworth, then the British Minister of State for the Armed Forces, announced that a retired High Court judge Sir Thayne Forbes would chair the public inquiry into allegations that 20 Iraqis, taken prisoner during the battle, were murdered and that others were tortured.
The British Ministry of Defence denied that the 20 were captured, but that 20 bodies were removed from the battlefield for identification and then returned to the families, and that a further nine prisoner were taken and held for questioning but were not mistreated.
As a result, Leigh Day and Public Interest Lawyers (which closed in August 2016) were referred to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority for possible disciplinary action.
In the report, Forbes said the most serious claims "have been found to be wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility".