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4:47pm Monday 8th February 2010
A former Oxfordshire police chief has been jailed for assaulting and falsely arresting a man in a petty row over money.
Metropolitan Police Commander Ali Dizaei, 47, was sentenced to four years by Mr Justice Simon at London's Southwark Crown Court.
A jury convicted the former head of Henley police of misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice at the end of a four-week trial.
They found he attacked young Iraqi businessman Waad al-Baghdadi before arresting and attempting to frame him.
The convictions spell the end of the Iranian officer's controversial 24-year career. Dizaei has been suspended on full pay since September 2008.
He emerged unscathed from a series of earlier inquiries, including a multimillion-pound undercover operation examining claims of corruption, fraud and dishonesty. But an 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.
Dizaei will remain a senior police officer until the bureaucratic formal process of throwing him out of the force can be completed. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which investigated the original complaint, must pass its files to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) for a decision. Dizaei will then be sacked for gross misconduct and could face losing all or part of his pension under further measures aimed at punishing corrupt officers.
Nick Hardwick, who leads the IPCC, branded Dizaei a "criminal in uniform" who threatened the reputation of the entire service.
The jury heard the two men 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, 24, 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.
Headington-Heathcliff, oxford says...
7:04pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Quentin Walker, Oxford says...
8:58pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Zaxharias Ziegla, Rose Hill says...
9:32pm Mon 8 Feb 10
Petre Mcvay, Barton says...
2:08am Tue 9 Feb 10
Harsh@home, Oxford says...
8:03am Tue 9 Feb 10
LadyPenelope, West Oxon says...
8:36am Tue 9 Feb 10
Abingdon_born_Cowley, Abingdon says...
10:06am Tue 9 Feb 10
Quentin Walker, Oxford says...
12:41pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Abingdon_born_Cowley wrote:If you read the full history of Ali Dizaei, you will be well placed to revise your opinion.
Now I realise that this Policeman needed to be sent down and he deserves evrything he will get, but why all the talk about positive discrimination? I'm far from a fan of it but I'm not sure where we can see from the evidence that the colour of the mans skin or the place he decends from had ANYTHING to do with his actions....?
Additional information, Oxford says...
9:34pm Sun 14 Feb 10
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Lord Palmerston, Weston Turville says...
6:55pm Mon 8 Feb 10