Nikita McNeill instructed in Review into the SFO’s conduct of the Unaoil case

In December 2021 the Court of Appeal in R v Akle & Anor [2021] EWCA Crim 1879 quashed the conviction of Ziad Akle for conspiracy to bribe an Iraqi oil official. The Court of Appeal found that there had been disclosure failings in the case, in particular in relation to contact between SFO employees, including the Director of the SFO, with an individual employed by the founding Ahsani family of Unaoil.

As a result of the Court of Appeal’s judgement, the Attorney General has appointed Sir David Calvert-Smith, former DPP and High Court Judge, to conduct an independent review into the SFO’s handling of the prosecution of individuals arising from the Unaoil case.

Nikita has been instructed to work with Sir David Calvert-Smith and Anthony Rogers (Deputy Chief Inspector of HMPCPSI) to look at what went wrong in the case and what changes are needed at the SFO to ensure that the failings identified in the judgement cannot happen again.

The Attorney General’s press release can be found here.