Met Commander Ali Dizaei jailed for corruption

[Sugar Ape]

Metropolitan Police Commander Ali Dizaei has been sentenced to four years for assaulting and falsely arresting a man in a dispute over £600.

 

Southwark Crown Court was told Waad Al-Baghdadi was arrested by Dizaei in a row over work on the officer's website.

 

Dizaei, 47, was convicted of both misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice.

 

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said he was guilty of a "wholesale abuse of power" motivated by self-interest and pride.

 

Dizaei was ordered to spend two years in prison and two years on licence.

 

Mr Justice Simon said the sentence included a deterrent element "to send a clear message that police officers of whatever rank are not above the law".

 

The judge told Dizaei: "You knew how the system worked and you thought you would never be discovered.

 

"You crossed that line and now stand convicted of these offences."

 

Speaking after the trial, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said: "It is extremely disappointing and concerning that this very senior officer has been found guilty of abusing his position and power.

 

 

 

Mr Al-Baghdadi wanted payment for working on the officer's website

"He has breached that trust and damaged not only his own reputation but that of the entire police service."

 

Speaking outside court, Gaon Hart, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Mr Dizaei's corruption, which would have been deplorable in any police officer, was all the more so given his position as a highly-ranked police commander.

 

"The public should have confidence that we will pursue anyone, regardless of their position, where there is evidence that they have committed serious offences of corruption."

 

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said "criminals in uniform like Dizaei" were the greatest threat to the reputation of the police.

 

The dispute between the men came to a head when Mr Al-Baghdadi, 24, demanded payment from Britain's most senior Asian officer for work on his personal website, alidizaei.com.

 

 

Dizaei and Mr Al-Baghdadi at a police station

Mr Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi national who has lived in the UK since 2003, told the court he confronted the police officer after seeing him drunk and dancing at the Persian Yas restaurant in Kensington, west London, in July 2008.

 

Dizaei then produced handcuffs and arrested him.

 

A police doctor told the court that injuries Dizaei claimed had been caused by Mr Al-Baghdadi were probably self-inflicted.

 

The court also heard that Dizaei, who had a 24-year police career in the UK, claimed to have received threatening voicemails and text messages from Mr Al-Baghdadi before the incident, but had "accidentally" deleted them.

 

Mr Al-Baghdadi said he was left "scared" and "shocked" after the incident.

 

During the trial he likened the "bully" Dizaei to the movie gangster Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino in the film Scarface.

 

Mr Wright said once Dizaei realised inconsistencies in his account had been uncovered by detectives he attempted to get the case dropped.

 

 

CPS spokesman Gaon Hart: "Dizaei abused his position as a senior police officer"

Dizaei is a former president of the Metropolitan Black Police Association.

 

He had emerged unscathed from a series of earlier inquiries, including a multimillion-pound undercover operation examining claims of corruption, fraud and dishonesty.

 

He has been suspended on full pay since September 2008, but now stands to be sacked from the Metropolitan Police.

 

Responding to the verdict, Nick Hardwick of the IPCC said: "He [Dizaei] went on to lie about what had happened and, if he had been successful, Mr Al-Baghdadi may have been sent to prison.

 

"Dizaei behaved like a bully and the only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them.

 

"Corruption comes in many forms and remains a threat to the police service. It requires constant vigilance to fight it."

 

Last November Dizaei was cleared of misusing his corporate credit card.

 

He had been accused of spending more than £5,000 on clothes and perfume during a trip to the US but an inquiry by Dorset Chief Constable Martin Baker found no evidence of wrongdoing.

 

 

 

 

What a cunt.

[Section_31]

Always thought he sounded like a bellend, he claimed his progress had been held back because the MET was racist even though he held the fourth-highest potition in the country, despite the fact asian officers constitute a tiny percentage of the entire British police force.

[lifetime fan]

Wasn't he the copper who tried to help a mate get off a blackmail charge?

[bigjohn]

Allegedly he has been bent for years and allegedly only got away with it for so long (allegedly) because he was very quick to play the race card (allegedly !). Police are shit scared of being called racist and are reluctant to investigate ethnic officers.

[Catch22]

Mr Al-Baghdadi can count himself extremely lucky that he wasn't shot for wearing a coat in the summer.

 

If Dizaei had supervized an operation in which that had happened in a tube station he would not have been jailed but instead since promoted twice like the woman "responsible" for the Brazilian shooting.

[Elmyn Noos]

pfft - came as no surprise at all to me. It's what always happens when you give his sort any kind of power.

[WaltonRed]

I personally think he's been stitched royally up.

 

Granted he's a dickhead but I get the feeling the establishment are glad to see his downfall.

[Fugitive]

Dizaei is a former president of the Metropolitan Black Police Association.

 

He definitely fucking conned his way into that position considering he's not even black.

[Elmyn Noos]

They should ask him if he knows where Osama Bin Laden is. I bet he does.

[halewood pete]

made up.fucking corrupt cunt.

[Wor Horse]

Allegedly he has been bent for years and allegedly only got away with it for so long (allegedly) because he was very quick to play the race card (allegedly !). Police are shit scared of being called racist and are reluctant to investigate ethnic officers.

 

That goes without saying.

[thechap]

I personally think he's been stitched royally up.

 

Granted he's a dickhead but I get the feeling the establishment are glad to see his downfall.

 

Are you joking?

 

You may have a point in your second line - and why shouldn't they be glad? - but if he was stiched up it was with the long long rope he weaved with which he used to hang himself.

[Catch22]

I personally think he's been stitched royally up.

 

Granted he's a dickhead but I get the feeling the establishment are glad to see his downfall.

 

 

OOT

 

I am. He is.

 

He is bent as fuck; our politics are very different but he is and always been wrong.

[RedBrian84]

The problem here is that they seemed to be in an awful hurry to promote him. Was this because of the furore surrounding the lack of minority officers in the police force? Because if that's the case then knee jerk doesn't even come into it. Racism is still a problem in the force that seems to be well documented but for every one of people like this tool, there are dozens of decent police officers from all walks of life and background who I'd wager would be far more deserving of his role.

 

I knew he'd play the race card as soon as he hit any trouble; there does genuinely seem to be a real fear amongst the police of being branded as racist and he obviously played on it.

 

Not only has he set the worst possible example to every other minority police officer in the force, but he has failed the police force in its entirety. He got what he deserved, and I hope there isn't any kind of backlash from this.

[halewood pete]

he played the race card all through his career,everyone in the met is delighted he got banged up

[sir roger]

Cracking headline in one of the papers the other day

 

 

Guilty , Dizaei a rascal !

[Anubis]

Admiral Street drugs squad. Keep an eye on this one. Bubbling under nicely....

[a stoner]

I bet he's shitting himself now he's inside for 2 years. One thing cons hate is coppers on the inside, especially bent ones at that. Bet he's gonna be using hiw weekly allowance on lube.

[Paul]

Loads of stories of his cuntery coming out now he's been sent down. Many tales of using his rank and position while off duty to get favourable treatment for himself or to intimidate others. I suspect the Met felt paralysed by the colour of his skin when trying to deal with him, which (if correct) is further evidence of how fucked up it is as an organisation with regard to race.

[Sugar Ape]

On a related note, does anyone else think the name' Black policemans association' is a little provocative? The chairman of it, whose name escapes me, was in the echo about a year ago saying it was open to any police officers regardless of race, so why that name?

[GJM]

Bizarrely, I was interviewed as a witness in the initial (failed) case which the Met bought against him back in 2002 (I think?).

 

I had some dealings with him as part of a number of projects which the new labour administration (man, how long ago does that seem now??) launched in the wake of the investigation into police racism following the sad and sorry shambles that surrounded the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

 

In my albeit brief experience, he was arrogant, self-regarding, pushy and generally unlikable. It was also clear to me that, at a later point in time, his employers were trying their very best to get him on any charge that they could.

 

Undone by his utter lack of ability to form the kinds of relationships with colleagues which mean that they will protect your back when you need it.

[Section_31]

Positive discrimination is a noble idea in certain walks of life, but not in careers where ability could actually be the difference between life and death for someone. You wouldn't employ a doctor with inferior medical skills just because he was Spanish, so why should someone go to the front of the queue when joining the police just because they wear a turban? And could one day be the only thing stood between you and a maniac with a chainsaw?

 

I once flirted with the idea of joining the fire brigade back in my youth, and the application process took the piss. Merseyside had two different application streams, one for women and ethnic minorities, and another for white men, you were basically told when applying that about a third of the mainstream applications went straight in the bin before the rest got sorted out, baffling shit.

 

When in uni, some bloke came up from the Home Office to give a talk about joining the civil service on its graduate programme. At the end of the talk he goes "we have another application process for ethnic minorities which I'm going to talk about now, so can all the non-ethnic minorities please leave the room." I thought it was funny myself but my mate was fuming, he still goes on about it now.

 

If I was an ethnic minority and I climbed to the top, I'd want to know it was because I was good, not because the HR department had my back.

[Paul]

I'm all for greater representation of minorities in key positions in society, but not if there's someone better qualified. The US model of affirmative action (as I understand it) is about quotas, which seems counter productive as it breeds resentment. Surely it's better to state that applications are encouraged from [insert minority group here] but the best candidate will get the job? With two basically equal candidates, I wouldn't have a problem with the black candidate getting the job if that was the final deciding factor; what's shit though is when better candidates get overlooked simply to fulfil a quota. That doesn't help anyone - least of all the "successful" candidate.

[Wor Horse]

Is there a 'White Policeman's asscociaton'?

[Paul]

Is there a 'White Policeman's asscociaton'?

 

No but why should there be? White people haven't been historically oppressed, denied rights and held down in this country. As long as under-representation remains a serious issue, there's a definite need for organisations such as that one in my view (assuming there's nothing inherently untoward about their work/attitudes).