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The battle for the truth behind the Birmingham pub bombings is currently focused on a classified file - which goes by the reference CJ4/6052. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has released a very limited amount of its contents. But what does the rest of it contain and why is it so important? Justice4the21 campaigner Julie Hambleton explains.

On Wednesday February 6, we were in the Royal Court of Justice in London.

Christopher Stanley, a member of our legal team at KRW AW LLP, had made a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request for access to a file that is catalogued in The National Archives at Kew but retained by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO).

That was in November 2017.

The file contains information relating to the activities of the IRA in 1975 after the Birmingham pub bombings on November 21, 1974.

Christopher’s request was refused so he appealed to Information Commissioner (ICO). Again he was refused access, so as a group we decided to take the ICO and NIO to the independent First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) to have this file released.

Two days before we were due to go to court, NIO sent us 12 pages from this file some of it redacted.

The information that was sent, which had been under embargo for over 45 years, was information that had been available in the newspapers back in 1975.

This makes us wonder, what exactly is it, that the British establishment do not want to become ‘open’ in the public domain?

Also it had taken over two years for NIO to look at the file and decide what could be released.

Christopher, Professor Mark McGovern, a sociologist from Edge Hill University and I all gave evidence.

Then, almost as if we were in a Hollywood film or a novel by Kafka, we were asked to leave the court, including our Barrister Dr Sam Fowles of Cornerstone Barristers (who represented us pro bono) when they not only closed the doors but actually locked them behind us.

It left Counsel for the NIO and the ICO with the three people sitting on the bench to discuss other evidence in secret. Really, you couldn’t make this stuff up!

All this, is under the guise of ‘National Security’ – which I understand to mean making our democratic processes and institutions including the Rule of Law, safe – including the democratic right to transparent government, openness and accountability.

Something never sits right in my gut whenever I hear the words ‘National Security’, especially where our campaign is concerned. If ‘National Security’ is a real concern, then why have the British authorities and the senior management of West Midlands Police never fully and transparently investigated and sought the prosecution of those who committed this heinous crime?

As it stands, there are specimens out there who have lived full lives, had children of their own, had well paid jobs and homes whilst 21 Brummies were slaughtered in cold blood.

The government has quite rightly made an extradition request to the American government in relation to Anne Sacoolas, so that a charge of causing the death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn, in Northamptonshire, can be brought against her. They have managed to do that in a very short space of time. Why have no extradition orders on the pub bombings suspects?

This took its toll on me. It is traumatic to have to continue fighting, to find the psychological strength to speak and battle for what is right, given that at the heart of it is the murder of my wonderful elder sister, Maxine, who was just 18 - and the murder of 20 others. But I will continue to do so to my dying breath.

THE classified file on IRA activity after the Birmingham and Guildford pub bombings, which claimed a total of 26 lives, is thought to look at the political reaction to the mainland IRA terror campaign which was at its peak in 1975.

The file is referenced CJ4/6052 by The National Archives and headed IRA activities and intentions in Great Britain.

Christopher said to the BBC outside the Tribunal that the file was “about the political thinking and the reaction to the mainland terror campaign post the pub bombings” and therefore was of clear significance to the public interest, particularly since some of the released material discussed opinions on devolution for Northern Ireland and Scotland in 1975 – thinking informing current debates about the same issue post-BREXIT.

The BBC reported that Prof McGovern, an expert on the Conflict in Northern Ireland said the security situation in Northern Ireland was vastly different now than it was in the 1970s.

He told the hearing that the possible harms of disclosure and of non-disclosure were “a balance we need to consider”.

“If you keep things under lock and key, people inevitably start to say why - there must be something there - therefore let’s get it out there,” he said.

The Tribunal asked Prof McGovern if anyone involved in the IRA in the 1970s was involved in activity now.

The Professor replied: “It’s entirely possible although being of a certain age there might possibly be someone who at some level was involved in the IRA in the 1970s and might be involved in one of the dissident groups, but I don’t know.”

Christopher Knight, for the Information Commissioner, asked: “Have there been threats to national security that follow from disclosure?”

The Professor replied: “Not to my knowledge.”

Mark Larmour, from NIO, was asked if there had been national security incidents from legacy disclosure. He said he was not sure he could answer that and it was “complex”.

Judgment on the release of file CJ4/6052 is expected at a later date. CJ4/6052 is one of hundred files held by the government still closed or retained but which could unlock important new evidence into the IRA bombing campaign which took 21 lives in Birmingham on 21 st November 1974.

The slaughter in Birmingham happened when IRA terrorists targeted The Mulberry Bush pub, in the base of the Rotunda, and the nearby underground bar, The Tavern In the Town.

Last year, jurors in the resumed Birmingham inquest were directed to return verdicts of unlawful killing. The jury concluded that, on the basis of the evidence it was presented with, there were no errors in the way police responded to an IRA warning call and their actions did not contribute to the deaths, though a botched IRA warning call did.

But campaigners claim the jury heard only limited evidence.

In Guildford, a full inquest is still to be held into the deaths of four soldiers and a civilian on 5 October 1974.