Ali Dizaei arrives with his wife at Southwark crown court. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP
after a jury found he had tried to frame an innocent man and told a series of lies in an attempt to cover up his abuse of office.
Ali Dizaei, a commander with Scotland Yard, was convicted of falsely arresting a web designer in a dispute over money and then lying in official statements by claiming he had been assaulted and threatened by the man.
Dizaei showed little reaction, but while waiting for the verdict, his head was bowed and his brow furrowed. After the jury announced its unanimous verdict, his wife hid her face as she tried to avoid crying.
Dizaei's 27-year police career will end with him being drummed out of the force in disgrace. He is almost certain to lose his pension after a clash in the street outside a restaurant which saw him abuse his authority as one of the Britain's top officers.
It is the second time he has been convicted of the offences. Dizaei was first convicted in 2010 but that conviction was quashed by the court of appeal in May 2011 after evidence emerged that Dizaei's accuser, Waad al-Baghdadi, had falsely claimed £27,000 in welfare benefits for his dead father, which raised questions about his reliability as a witness.
After 11 hours of deliberations, the jury in the current trial decided it did not believe the police chief's account and instead believed the evidence of Baghdadi, despite his conviction for fraud.
After the verdict Mrs Dizaei vowed to fight on: "I promise you I will never give up. We will go back to the court of appeal. I will never give up."
Dizaei was an outspoken critic of the police on race, leader of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), and a key figure in a race war that erupted at the top of Scotland Yard in the summer of 2008.
He had been cleared of criminal charges in 2003 and returned to duty despite Scotland Yard suspecting him of serious offences. That inquiry had intensified after MI5 had suspicions that the Iranian-born officer was a danger to national security.
In the case at Southwark crown court, the crown alleged that on 18 July 2008, Dizaei had clashed with Baghdadi, who claimed the police commander owed him £600 for a website he had designed.
Dizaei then arrested Baghdadi, using the special call sign given to him as a commander – Metro 35 – to call for back-up to take his prisoner away. He claimed to have been assaulted and poked in the stomach with the mouthpiece of a shisha pipe. Dizaei filled out official statements and maintained his false account on the witness stand.
Baghdadi spent 24 hours in a cell and six weeks on bail before it was decided he would not face charges. Scotland Yard handed the case over to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which investigated Dizaei. He becomes the most high-profile scalp obtained by a watchdog that has faced questions about its effectiveness.
The jury at Southwark crown court was unanimous in finding Dizaei guilty of misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice. They had begun considering their verdict on Thursday afternoon.
A doctor who examined Dizaei said he had faked injuries he claimed to have suffered during the arrest.
The jury convicted Dizaei despite hearing evidence Baghdadi had previously lied. The jury heard that the web designer:
• Was accused of glassing a man in the street outside a central Londonnightclub in September 2009, according to two witnesses who testified in court.
• Gave false details in the first trial about his real name, age and date of birth.
• Used false documents to get into Britain from Syria.
• Was convicted in September 2011 of committing benefit fraud from 2007 to 2010 and sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, and was released on the eve of the trial.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Peter Wright QC said Dizaei had suffered a "humiliating loss of face" on the night and went on to deliberately arrest Baghdadi on a "cooked up allegation".
Dizaei wrongly arrested Baghdadi after a row over a website but it was a "wholesale abuse of his power", said Wright, adding Dizaei believed he could do what he wanted and told the jury: "Woe to anyone who crosses his path."
After his 2010 conviction, Dizaei was jailed for four years and served one year before being released after his successful appeal.
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