Ali Dizaei: Scotland Yard insiders describe the decision as "unbelievable"

I'll bet they fucking did!


When you've read the report, should you wish, you can go here and follow the link and listen to the events of the evening that Dizaei had Waad al-Baghdadi nicked.

Originally I had featured both the Guardian and Telegraph reports on this astounding piece of news, both are now consigned to the memory hole in favour of this report from the London Evening Standard, who seem to be a bit more in touch with the reality of the situation.

Though I guess, in the case of a prosecutor, it's something you would hardly want to go to court with, there arise certain situations where one has to ask a question, of yourself or others or the world for that matter. Let me give you a for instance.

A three year old child, in the care of her parents goes missing without a trace. The parents claim she was kidnapped. The dogs are brought in, and everywhere stinks of death.

What are the odds?

From the highest echelons of the shiny buttons brigade, to the lowest of the low, the barely literate woodentops, corruption runs through the Met like water over Niagara, always has, always will, and like the water over Niagara, in amounts that stagger the imagination.

That one of the shiny button brigade, gets nicked and convicted for misconduct, such a polite term isn't it? Now none of us are strangers to cases of wrongful conviction, but when one of the shiny button brigade, gets nicked and convicted for corruption and abusing his power, among other things, and then somehow manages to have that conviction overturned, what are the odds?

Police forced to give Ali Dizaei his job back
Justin Davenport,
30 Sep 2011

Ali Dizaei, the Scotland Yard chief jailed for corruption, has been sensationally reinstated today as a Met commander.

The officer won his job back four months after his convictions for misconduct were quashed by the Appeal Court.

Mr Dizaei, 49, who spent a year in prison, was allowed to return by a secret meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority's professional standards sub-committee.

He said: "I am delighted and really happy to be back in the police service. I intend to clear my name and I will do that irrespective of how long it takes."

However, it is understood MPA officials today took the decision to suspend him as a police officer pending his retrial on corruption allegations.

Technically he has been reinstated as a £90,000-a-year Met commander on full pay and conditions. He said he would appeal to the High Court against any decision to suspend him.

Mr Dizaei claimed the MPA committee took the reinstatement decision after a police appeals tribunal headed by a QC "unanimously" dismissed his sacking. Neither the MPA nor the Met made any initial comment today.

But the decision sent shockwaves through Scotland Yard, with insiders describing the decision as "unbelievable".

Mr Dizaei's lawyers are expected to challenge his suspension in the courts, arguing that other senior white police staff have been allowed to stay in their posts while investigations into misconduct take place.

Mr Dizaei will be formally reinstated when his police warrant card is re-
turned. It is understood that other members of the MPA were unaware of the move this morning.

The decision was taken last night by six members of the sub-committee, who held a session behind closed doors to discuss the case.

One insider said officials were left with no legal alternative but to overturn the decision to dismiss the officer after the appeal court quashed his conviction.

Mr Dizaei last year became the most senior officer in 33 years to be jailed for corruption.

He was convicted in February last year after a jury at Southwark crown court found him guilty of perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office.

The policeman was found to have arranged the false arrest of Waad al-Baghdadi, a web designer who had done some work with him.

Iranian-born Mr Dizaei, who wore his uniform at the time, was accused of arresting Mr al-Baghdadi outside the Persian Yas restaurant in Kensington, despite knowing he did not have reasonable grounds to do so.

He was also alleged to have perverted the course of justice by falsely claiming in written statements that he was a victim of an unprovoked assault by the man.

Mr Dizaei, previously a high-flying officer tipped as a possible Met Commissioner, was dismissed from the force in March last year.

In May this year he won an appeal against conviction.

The appeal court ruled that he should face a retrial and the case is expected to be heard early next year.

The officer, a former president of the National Black Police Association, pleaded not guilty to the charges at a court hearing in June. LES

Come back Andy Hayman, all is forgiven.