Legal experts and activists have renewed a campaign to overturn the convictions of four Muslims who allege they were “framed” by West Midlands Police (WMP) in a 2017 terrorism case, as the men mark 10 years since they were sentenced.
The four men, Naweed Ali, Khobaib Hussain, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz, known collectively as the “Birmingham Four” were convicted at the Old Bailey in August 2017 of preparing acts of terrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ali, Hussain and Rahman received minimum terms of 20 years, while Aziz received a minimum term of 15 years.
The prosecution’s case was that the men were preparing a terrorist attack in Britain, potentially involving a bomb, knives and a vehicle. The judge said he believed that, without the intervention of counter-terrorism police and the security services, terrorist acts would have taken place.
However, serious accusations of wrongdoing were made by the defence and their conviction has since attracted attention from activist groups who have worked with the families of the prisoners to fight for a review of the case and their eventual freedom.
Speaking at an event in Birmingham titled: “10 years of injustice: How police framed the Birmingham Four”, organised by CAGE International, panelists revisited the allegations of corruption, educated the audience on ways to support the prisoners and announced a new action plan for their campaign to apply a new wave of pressure on the authorities to review the case.
The speakers included Moazzam Begg of CAGE International, Former government lawyer and Defend Our Juries co-founder Tim Crosland, a sister of one of the prisoners Mariam Husain, and a local cleric Maulana Sikander.
The speakers presented a timeline of events leading up to the trial and detailed accusations which include:
- An undercover police officer (“Vincent”) planted evidence to frame the men by putting a JD bag into a van with incriminating items.
- “Vincent” described events in police notes that had not taken place yet, suggesting complicity.
- One of the trial jurors had a crush on one of the police officers but was not recused.
- Officers spoke to each other regularly during the trial to get their stories straight.
- There was no DNA or CCTV evidence.
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Mariam, the sister of prisoner Khobaib Hussain, explained her belief that wider geopolitical circumstances at the time of the trial may have prejudiced the proceedings.
“In an ordinary trial it takes only one piece of doubt to throw away the case but here, we had it all … We had all of the 2017 terror attacks happening right on our doorstep of the trial in London. The legal teams put in applications to delay the trial (to a less politically sensitive time) but the judge was having none of it. The CPS, WMP, MI5 and counter terror unit got the conviction they wanted – the brothers sentenced to life in prison.
“The last 10 years of this has been traumatic but our faith keeps us strong. The campaign’s aim now is to get the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC) to reopen the case by using their special powers to force a review. We submitted a new appeal earlier this year.”
Two years ago, the Birmingham Four’s lawyers referred the men’s case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) the only body with the power to reopen the case, with a second submission made recently in May 2026. No progress has been made since.
In front of a crowded room, Tim Crosland pledged the support of Defend Our Juries to the campaign to help raise further awareness of the case.
“It is down to anyone who knows the truth of this case to ask themselves, what are we going to do about it? Just image if it was you, or your brother or your sister, your kids who was in this situation. You wouldn’t want to look outside and see people looking but then just moving on and forgetting about it. You’d want to see a reaction. I believe I can bring at least 250 people to whatever action, in London or here in Birmingham (to protest). We can have a massive impact, we can get everyone talking about this case and build the political pressure to get the Birmingham Four free.”
Documentary and police response
In 2022, CAGE Int released a detailed documentary laying out their evidence which they claim strongly suggest “corruption” and a stitch up.
The documentary called The Birmingham Four was screened at various locations across the UK to help raise better awareness of the case and to rally greater community support for the convicts.
Supporters of the Birmingham Four have attempted to argue that their case has striking parallels to an infamous case from the 1970s known as the “Birmingham Six.”
The Birmingham Six were six Irish men convicted in 1975 of carrying out the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings for the IRA, which killed 21 people and injured 182. They maintained their innocence throughout.
Their convictions ultimately became one of Britain’s most notorious miscarriages of justice and were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991, after the men had spent around 16 years in prison.
The case was particularly damaging because of allegations and evidence of police misconduct, including disputed confessions, violence against suspects and serious problems with forensic evidence.
The similarities being highlighted by the Birmingham Four’s lawyers are principally about how terrorism cases can be constructed when police are under enormous pressure to identify and stop perceived threats.
Experts involved with the case fear that a similar atmosphere of fear, hate and Islamophobia post 9/11 and the rise of groups like ISIS during the Syrian civil war may have created similar witch hunt-like circumstances with which led to the Birmingham Four being essentially “framed” for a phoney terror plot.
Following the release of the documentary in 2022, which to date has been watched close to 10,000 times, 5Pillars contacted WMP for a statement on the allegations that year.
They responded saying: “All four men were unanimously found guilty after a four and a half month trial in August 2017. In October 2018 the Court of Appeal examined in great detail the safety of the convictions and upheld strongly the findings of the jury and as such their appeal was refused. The following comments were made by Lord Justice Holroyde after the Court of Appeal hearing: ‘We have considered whether anything put before us casts doubt on the safety of the convictions. We are satisfied that there is nothing that does so. The jury by their verdicts plainly rejected that the evidence had been planted. Having done so there was ample circumstantial evidence against each of the accused to support the convictions.'”
Event organisers in Birmingham have urged supporters to take action by: learning about the case and its alleged discrepancies, writing to the West Midlands Police and urging them to reveal the identity of the protected undercover officer known as “Vincent”, to watch, share and host screenings of the documentary The Birmingham 4, write letters of support for the Birmingham Four directly, and to rally in support during any future public action.
