A British court jailed the country’s most senior Asian police officer for four years on Monday for attacking a man and trying to frame him in a petty row over money.
Ali Dizaei, 47, was convicted of misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice following a four-week trial in London and given a sentence that the judge said was intended as a deterrent for others.
The officer will now be sacked for gross misconduct and faces losing all or part of his pension under measures to punish corrupt officers. Investigators who led the probe against Dizaei branded him a “criminal in uniform” and said he had behaved like a bully.
The jury heard how Iranian-born Dizaei had met his victim, 24-year-old Iraqi businessman Waad al-Baghdadi, in a west London restaurant run by a friend of the police officer in July 2008.
The Iraqi approached Dizaei, who held the rank of commander and rose to become head of the National Black Police Association, and asked him for £600 (US$940) he was owed for building a Web site for him.
The policeman grew angry and confronted Baghdadi in a nearby side street where a scuffle took place and the Iraqi was roughly arrested and handcuffed. Dizaei called for back-up and when the officers arrived, he handed them the metal mouthpiece of a shisha pipe that was held on Baghdadi’s keyring and claimed that he had been stabbed with it.
However, a doctor later concluded that two red marks on Dizaei’s torso did not match the pipe and were probably self-inflicted. When Baghdadi was told he would not be charged, he complained about his treatment and suspicions were raised, marking the beginning of the end of Dizaei’s 24-year career with London’s Metropolitan Police.
“Dizaei behaved like a bully and the only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them,” said Nick Hardwick, head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
“The greatest threat to the reputation of the police service is criminals in uniform like Dizaei,” he said.
Sentencing him at London’s Southwark Crown Court, the judge told Dizaei that his jail term included a deterrent element “to send a clear message that police officers of whatever rank are not above the law.”
“You knew how the system worked and you thought you would never be discovered. It is to the credit of the investigators in this case that early on they questioned your account,” he told the police officer.
Dizaei also made headlines in 2008 when he represented Tarique Ghaffur, then Britain’s top Muslim police officer, in threatening legal action against then Met chief Sir Ian Blair for discrimination and bullying.
Met chief Paul Stephenson said on Monday that Dizaei’s “disgraceful behavior” damaged the reputation of the entire police force.
“It is extremely disappointing and concerning that this very senior officer has been found guilty of abusing his position and power,” he said.
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