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Accused Met Commander back in the spotlight
21.05.09
Naming his autobiography Not One of Us was a rare understatement from Metropolitan Police Commander Ali Dizaei.
The Iranian-born police officer has spent the last eight years in the spotlight of a series of controversies and endured the deep suspicion of colleagues.
He has so far managed the remarkable trick of being a staunch critic of Britain's largest force, while enjoying a successful career within it.
Dizaei once joked he should put on his protective stab vest when he goes inside New Scotland Yard.
There have been occasions when he could compare himself with London's most-wanted in terms of his notoriety at the force.
The bodybuilder was spied on, bugged, and then wrongly accused and charged - all by his own colleagues.
He was said to be intensely disliked by some officers who described his sunglasses and cowboy boots as "flash".
With flamboyant taste for designer clothes, a self-confessed open marriage and taste for expensive nightclubs, Dizaei was never a straightforward policeman.
It was all a far cry from his status as one of the Metropolitan Police's fastest-rising young officers, tipped to become one of the force's most senior ethnic minority officers.
Policing was in his blood. Born in Tehran in 1962, his grandfather had been assistant commissioner and his father was head of the traffic police.
Since moving to Britain he embarked on a career with Thames Valley Police in 1987 after leaving City University Law School.
Despite suffering racial abuse in his early years as an officer, he studied for an MA and eventually a PhD in his spare time.
Dizaei joined the Metropolitan Police as a superintendent in March 1999.
It was the year the Met was accused of institutional racism after an inquiry into the police handling of the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Dizaei was by then vice-chairman of the National Black Police Officers Association (NBPA).
Unknown to him, Dizaei was suspected of crimes and in 1999 and 2000 became the subject of what was to become the most expensive inquiry into a single officer.
Colleagues investigated him over allegations of corruption, using drugs and spying for Iran under the codename Helios.
In Not One of Us, Dizaei revealed how surveillance officers drew up a detailed picture of his private life, work contacts and even mapped his romantic liaisons.
Dizaei said so much paperwork was generated by the inquiry, which ran from a secret base in Kent dubbed "Miami", that he needed a lorry to remove it before the case.
He was suspended in 2001 and two years later he was cleared of perverting the course of justice after an Old Bailey trial.
The officer was then reinstated and awarded £60,000 compensation but continued to court controversy.
In 2006 he criticised a Forest Gate anti-terror raid on two Muslim brothers and the practice of profiling aircraft passengers.
He was one of nine officers promoted to the £90,000-a-year post of commander last year as he worked in Hounslow as borough chief.
Dizaei also oversaw the operation which led to barrister Mark Saunders being shot dead at his home in Markham Square Chelsea.
But he was suspended in September by the Metropolitan Police Authority as three separate inquiries into his conduct were under way.
At the time, as a close confidant of former Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, Dizaei was at the centre of the race firestorm at Scotland Yard.
Mr Ghaffur, who accused Commissioner Sir Ian Blair of racism, eventually settled out of court.
Dizaei launched his own employment tribunal case last December, several months after he was suspended pending the outcome of a series of inquiries.
Reader views (2)
Frank Delacoe, I will second that. Any objection? No objection , so he is now Prime Minister. Now what? Where we go from here? Ah! no more stop and search, no harassment of any kind to public, and so on and so on.... When are people of this country going to wake up?
- Surj, london
Hes so slippery we should make him Prime Minister.
- Frank Delacoe, Portsmouth England
