Crooked Muslim cop finally convicted in Britain

For nearly three decades, he considered himself above the law in a career littered with lies, sickening threats to women and old-fashioned corruption. But yesterday the talking stopped for Scotland Yard’s ‘Teflon Commander’ Ali Dizaei after he was convicted for the second time of framing an innocent man and sent back to jail.

The swaggering playboy, who loved to play the race card to intimidate critics, will never wear a police uniform again after receiving a three-year sentence for misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice.

His disgraceful behaviour has been repeatedly exposed by the Daily Mail which, since 2001, has chronicled how timid Scotland Yard chiefs appeased his appalling behaviour, endless threats of legal action and even strikes by fellow race militants.

At one stage, Dizaei was considered more powerful than the Metropolitan Police Commissioner – such was the stranglehold he held over his supposed superiors.

In 2008, he was central to a plot to bring down the then Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair by encouraging a devastating claim for racial discrimination by Britain’s most senior Asian officer, Tarique Ghaffur. Their campaign unravelled only when the Mail revealed that Mr Ghaffur’s lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari – a close friend of Dizaei – was a convicted conman with bogus legal qualifications. Mr Ghaffur later dropped his compensation claim against the Met and retired.

Dizaei, 49, who arrived at court with his third wife Shy, was first found guilty in February 2010 of framing young businessman Waad al-Baghdadi in a street row. But he was freed from prison, where he was serving a four year sentence, last May after the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions because his victim had failed to tell the truth about his immigration status.

Guilty verdicts in the retrial mean there is now no way back for the disgraced officer – who in an extraordinary interview in the lead-up to his retrial compared his time in prison to that of Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

Incredibly, although he had still to clear his name, he was reinstated, quickly suspended on full pay and then awarded up to £180,000 in back pay and allowances as he awaited the new hearing. He was also granted legal aid and will continue to receive his full £100,000 a year police salary in prison until Scotland Yard chiefs sack him.

Insiders believe it could be months before Dizaei, who intends to appeal against his latest convictions, is off the Metropolitan Police payroll.

In 2003, Dizaei was controversially awarded £80,000 compensation and a promise of fast-track promotion after a previous court case ended in his acquittal. Yesterday’s three-year term will be reduced by the 15 months he has already spent behind bars.

Passing sentence at Southwark Crown Court, Mr Justice Saunders said Dizaei used his position and power to arrest Mr al-Baghdadi over a private dispute.

He told the policeman: ‘You are a very senior officer. The breach of trust that the public has placed in you is the more serious because of your senior appointment. You have been a role model to many other people as a result of your achievements as a police officer.’

Iranian-born Dizaei, from Acton, west London, had initially been jailed for four years after being convicted of the same offences in February 2010. In both cases the jury’s verdict was unanimous.

Yesterday his barrister, Stephen Riordan QC, said his time in prison was ‘extremely difficult’ because of his job as a high-profile police officer. He told the court that Dizaei was assaulted and admitted to hospital twice while serving his original sentence.

Dizaei is expected to serve half of his sentence, meaning he is likely to be released from jail within three months. The judge said a later hearing would be held to decide how much the policeman should pay towards the costs of the prosecution and his defence team.

Despite new evidence about Mr al-Baghdadi’s immigration status, the jury of four women and eight men was not swayed by Dizaei’s denials. After a month-long trial, they found he attacked the young Iraqi businessman before arresting and attempting to frame him.

Dizaei previously emerged unscathed from a series of inquiries over the years, including a multi-million-pound undercover operation examining claims of corruption, fraud and dishonesty.

When he was cleared of corruption in 2003, it emerged he had at least six mistresses while married to second wife Natalie. But the attempt to frame a man who pestered him for payment over a website exposed him as a violent bully and liar who abused his position.

Southwark Crown Court heard that the officer and the young Iraqi met by chance in the Persian Yas restaurant, run by Dizaei’s friend Sohrab Eshragi, in Hammersmith Road, west London, on July 18 2008. Mr al-Baghdadi approached Dizaei and asked for £600 he was owed for building a website showcasing his career, press interviews and speeches. This angered Dizaei, who had just eaten a meal with his wife after attending a ceremony at New Scotland Yard for new recruits.

The officer confronted the younger man in a nearby sidestreet, where a scuffle took place and Mr al-Baghdadi was roughly arrested and handcuffed.

In one of two 999 calls, Dizaei asked an operator for ‘urgent assistance’ before starting to arrest Mr al-Baghdadi. When officers arrived, Dizaei handed them the metal mouthpiece of a shisha pipe, held on Mr al-Baghdadi’s key ring, and claimed he had been stabbed with it. But a doctor at Hammersmith police station concluded that two red marks on the officer’s torso were probably self-inflicted and did not match the pipe.

Dizaei told colleagues he had been attacked, leaving Mr al-Baghdadi in custody for 24 hours and ultimately facing prosecution.

Gaon Hart, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said after the hearing: ‘Dizaei’s corruption, which would be deplorable in any police officer, was all the more so given his position as a highly ranked commander. ‘The public entrust the police with considerable powers and with that comes considerable responsibility. Dizaei abused that power and ignored that responsibility.’

Deborah Glass, deputy chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, added: ‘There is no room in the police for corrupt officers, and today’s verdict underlines that.’

A small group of Dizaei’s supporters mounted a protest as Miss Glass left the court building, heckling her and giving her a slow handclap. Dizaei’s solicitor Imran Khan, of the Manchester-based law firm Lewis, Hymanson and Small, said he planned to challenge his conviction. On the steps of the court, Mr Khan said: ‘He is extremely disappointed at the decision and we shall be appealing straight away.’

Original report here




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