Middle East Eye reports:

The new British government has appointed Richard Hermer, an experienced lawyer who has often spoken out against Israeli breaches of international law, as the country’s attorney general.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won a landslide majority in this week’s election, selected Hermer as the chief legal adviser to the government on Friday.

The attorney general oversees the Government Legal Department, the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service (which Starmer led between 2008 and 2013), among other responsibilities.

Hermer, 55, is not a member of parliament and will instead be given a life peerage to sit in the House of Lords.

With 31 years of experience at the bar, Hermer specialises in human rights, as well as public and environmental law.

He was previously at Doughty Street Chambers, where Starmer also worked, before moving to Matrix Chambers.

Among Hermer’s recent cases was representing Abu Zubaydah, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who was subjected to extreme mistreatment and torture at secret CIA “black sites” in six countries.

The former detainee filed a lawsuit against the UK government over alleged complicity in his ordeal. [Continue reading…]