THE BIRMINGHAM SIX are to mount a High Court challenge to the British Home Office's "insulting" compensation of up to £400,000 each for their 16 years in prison.
The six, who were cleared by the Court of Appeal of bombing two public houses and freed in 1991, are planning to meet their lawyers this week to discuss seeking a judicial review over the level of compensation.
One, Mr Paddy Hill, said if the judicial review failed then they hoped the Irish Government would support their attempt to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
"I believe I have a right under the Irish Constitution to follow that course of action and I have already been in touch with my legal representatives in Ireland," he said.
Since their release the six men have received an interim payment of £200,000 and several lawyers predicted that their final compensation would run into seven figures. However Sir David Calcutt, the Assessor of Compensation for Miscarriages of Justice, informed the men last year that the "full and final" offer would be up to £400,000.
He insisted this month that the figure would not be increased.
A Home Office spokeswoman insisted the British government was not involved in the process.
"Sir David independently reached his assessment. There are no set amounts and no formula for working it out. If there is a serious disagreement then the High Court is the right place for this issue to be aired and settled," she added.
Mr Hill (51), described his final offer of £316,000 as "insulting" and pointed out that a former Manchester police officer recently received £215,000 compensation after serving 11 months in prison.
"This figure includes the money already paid and around £30,000 my family paid out over the years to come and visit me in prison. It's nothing but an insult, its not even £20,000 a year and does not even take our futures into account," he said.
But several Conservative backbenchers suggested the six should not receive any compensation.
Dame Jill Knight, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston said she believed her constituents will be "infuriated at the effrontery of these men. They have been treated with great fairness and they are trying to make a laughing stock of the British nation."