The Birmingham 4

When four young Muslim men were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment after a police investigation and trial that presented numerous violations of due process and questions around them having been framed, members of their family contacted Cage.

Upon hearing the evidence from the families and the lawyers - who were convinced this trial had been a grave miscarriage of justice akin to the Birmingham Six trial - when six Irish men Hugh Callaghan, Patrick Joseph Hill, Gerard Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, William Power and John Walker were each sentenced to life in 1975, then only quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1991 - CAGE began a campaign.

The case of the Birmingham Six framed how we would present this to the British public. We knew the harrowing story of Naweed Ali, Khobaib Hussain, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz - who were arrested in a dramatic media furore and trial after being accused of preparing a grisly attack on British soil - had to be told by Moazzam Begg. 

For the first time, a Cage campaign centred on a film documentary that premiered in June 2022. It traced the dramatic arrest in 2016, the complete evacuation of part of the city centre, a bomb-disposal unit, and the ensuing media frenzy that ultimately led to their conviction and sentencing.

In the film, CAGE senior director Moazzam Begg takes viewers inside the dark world of undercover policing, and explores how the four men fell prey to a sting operation mounted by the West Midlands Police. 

Through interviews with barrister Stephen Kamlish and solicitor Gareth Pierce, and candid statements by family member Mariam Hussain - sister of Khobaib - the short documentary has been screened across the UK, and is available for your screening from CAGE.