Dizaei’s career over after guilty verdict at retrial

Scotland Yard commander Ali Dizaei, 49, will never wear police uniform again after his conviction at a retrial for misconduct and perverting the course of justice.

Dizaei was first found guilty in 2010 of framing young businessman Waad al-Baghdadi in a street row but walked out of Leyhill open prison a year later after the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction.

Guilty verdicts for a second time mean there is now no way back for the senior officer, who spun a web of lies to cover his tracks.

He received a three-year prison sentence at London’s Southwark Crown Court yesterday, although this will be reduced by the 15 months he has already spent behind bars and he could be freed in three months

Passing sentence, the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said Dizaei used his position and power to arrest Mr al-Baghdadi over a private dispute.

“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.”

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.

But 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, he 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 two red marks on his 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 facing prosecution.

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

Iranian-born Dizaei, from Acton, west London, was jailed for four years after being convicted of the offences in February 2010.

His barrister, Stephen Riordan QC, said his time in prison was “extremely difficult” and he had been assaulted and admitted to hospital twice.

Mr Justice Saunders said he took into account this and the time the senior officer spent on bail awaiting his second trial in passing a shorter sentence yesterday.

The judge said a hearing would be held at a later date to decide how much he should pay towards the costs of the prosecution and his defence team.

Dizaei’s solicitor Imran Khan, of Manchester-based law firm Lewis, Hymanson and Small, said he would challenge his conviction.

The convictions spell the end of Dizaei’s career spanning three decades. He won his job back with the Metropolitan Police before the retrial but has been suspended on his full salary of £90,000 and will remain an officer until he is formally thrown out of the force.

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