41 Organisations Call for Immediate Review of Birmingham Four Convictions as Men Mark Ten Years Since Arrest

Birmingham — A coalition of 41 organisations - including CAGE, APPEAL, the Justice Gap, JENGbA, Black Lives Matter UK, the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Stop the War Coalition Birmingham, and Maslaha - has today issued a joint statement as reported in the Guardian calling for the urgent review of the convictions of four Muslim men from Birmingham known as the Birmingham Four.

Naweed Ali, Khobaib Hussain, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz were convicted of terrorism offences in 2017 following a joint undercover operation by West Midlands Police and MI5, and sentenced to life imprisonment. This month marks ten years since their arrest. They and their legal team have maintained their innocence throughout.

As covered in the Justice Gap, The day after the jury’s verdict, Gareth Peirce did something that she had never done before. She published a public statement: ‘We register our unqualified respect for the system we have of trial by jury in this country. But jurors can on occasion get things wrong.’ The lawyer says that the circumstances leading to their conviction felt to her ‘like being in a timewarp’. ‘There were cases in the 1970s and the early 1980s where West Midlands Police planted and fabricated evidence to such an extent that the squad responsible was completely disbanded and dozens of defendants convicted, one by one had their convictions quashed,’ wrote the solicitor. ‘This case rests on police fabrication and mendacity in the clearest way.’

The coalition is demanding that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) immediately reopen the case under its exceptional circumstances provision, a power that allows a new appeal even in the absence of new evidence, alongside a full independent investigation into the conduct of West Midlands Police, and the men's immediate release. The CCRC has been holding the case for over 2 years, and are long overdue to take action on it. 

The convictions rested almost entirely on evidence produced through an undercover operation where the men were set up. West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, working with MI5, established a fake courier company - Hero Couriers - with the aim of ensnaring the men. On Naweed Ali's first day of work, a 'kill kit' was discovered in his car after he had handed his keys to the undercover officer, known only as 'Vincent', who had sole and unobserved access to the vehicle for over an hour.

There was no DNA evidence, no fingerprints, and no prior surveillance linking any of the men to the items found. CCTV footage covering the window in which Vincent was alone with Ali's car was withheld from the jury. Over 1,000 deleted messages between undercover officers were subsequently produced in evidence - despite the officers claiming during the trial that they had not been in contact. The trial judge himself found that police had behaved with contempt of court.

The trial took place at a time when four separate terrorist attacks struck the UK, including the Manchester Arena bombing, a backdrop their lawyers have argued made a fair trial structurally impossible. Gareth Peirce, the human rights lawyer who represented the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four, now acts for two of the men.

On 16 June 2026, Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, raised the case directly in a Westminster Hall debate on West Midlands Police, with the Minister for Policing and Crime, Sarah Jones, present. The case is now on ministerial record.

Despite a formal application being submitted to the CCRC over two years ago, the Commission has taken no meaningful action. The CCRC was itself established in the wake of the Birmingham Six miscarriage of justice, a case bearing striking similarities to this one, making its continued inaction all the more concerning.

Naila Ahmed, Head of Campaigns at CAGE, said:

"These four men have been unjustly imprisoned for ten years. There are major concerns about West Midlands Police's conduct in a joint operation with MI5, especially regarding their undercover officers who have so far evaded any accountability. Any impartial assessment of the facts will recognise this as a gross miscarriage of justice. We urge the CCRC to do the same, and to use the exceptional circumstances provision to refer this case back to the Court of Appeal without further delay."

Notes to editors

• The full joint statement and signatory list is available here
• Interview requests and further information: karsen@cage.ngo
• CAGE International is an independent advocacy organisation challenging abuses carried out under the War on Terror

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