‘Birmingham Four’ lawyers hope spycops inquiry will reopen case

Undercover officers working for West Midlands’ ‘special projects team’ planted evidence to convict men, lawyers claim Lawyers representing four men convicted of terror offences are increasingly hopeful that revelations from the undercover policing inquiry could boost the chances of their case being reopened. Ten years ago, Khobaib Hussain, Naweed Ali, Mohibur Rahman and Tahir Aziz were arrested and later convicted of plotting a terrorist attack in the UK after an elaborate covert police operation. As part of the undercover operation, police set up a fake delivery firm – Hero Couriers – to snare Hussain and Ali, who, like one of the other “Birmingham Four”, had a previous terror-related conviction. The investigation involved an undercover police officer working for the West Midlands’ “special projects team” under the alias “Vincent”. The lawyers submitted an initial application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to investigate the men’s convictions in 2024 and are still waiting for a response.

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Scoop News DeskBirmingham, Alabama · Published Thursday, August 13, 2026 at 3:52 PM UTCUpdated Friday, August 14, 2026 at 3:32 PM UTC

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She said: “We’re in a position now, unfortunately, where you’re having to spoon-feed and redirect the CCRC to ‘go look here, go do this’ because we’re not getting regular updates so we don’t really know what’s going on and how they’re investigating.” On Wednesday, Cage issued a joint statement signed by several organisations, including the miscarriage of justice charity Appeal and Muslim advocacy groups, which called for the CCRC to immediately review and reopen the case.

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