Sapna Malik

Sapna Malik is a partner at Leigh Day, with over 12 years’ litigation experience. She has been identified by Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession 2012 as “having established an impressive reputation for handling work at the intersection of human rights and personal injury law.”

Sapna currently heads a team of lawyers representing over 300 Iraqi citizens who claim that they were subjected to unlawful detention and treatment by British forces in Iraq. These cases follow the successful mediation in 2008 of the claims brought by the family of Baha Mousa (deceased), and nine other men tortured alongside him by British soldiers in Iraq in 2003. As well as receiving compensation, the men also received official apologies from the Armed Forces Minister and the British Army. Sapna also represented Baha Mousa’s family and the other men, together with Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, at The Baha Mousa Public Inquiry, which reported its shocking findings in 2011.

Sapna also represents two former Libyan dissidents and their families who allege that the UK government was complicit in their unlawful renditions back to Libya where they were subjected to brutal treatment. 

Sapna’s previous successes include:

• acting for former Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed, in his claim against the British Security Services and others for alleged complicity in his torture, renditions and unlawful detention during almost seven years of abuse in Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The claim resolved in an out of court settlement in 2010, which was reported in Parliament.
• representing over 200 British military veterans exposed to chemical warfare agents, allegedly without their informed consent, at the Porton Down military laboratories from the 1940s-1980s. As well as receiving monetary compensation, the government also issued an apology to them.
• securing compensation for over 1,000 Kenyan pastoralists who successfully sued the British Ministry of Defence for injuries and deaths allegedly caused by unexploded ordnance left on their grazing ranges by the British Army since the Second World War.

Sapna joined Leigh Day as a trainee in 1996, qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and was made a partner in 2005. In 2010 Sapna was invited by the Foreign Secretary to join an advisory group on Human Rights.