Dizaei, 49, due to stand trial accused of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice STEPHEN WRIGHT – dailymail.co.uk
A controversial police chief awaiting trial for alleged corruption could receive up to £180,000 in back pay after being dramatically reinstated at Scotland Yard. Ali Dizaei, 49, was sacked from his £110,000 a year commander’s job in the Metropolitan Police after he was jailed last year for misconduct and perverting the course of justice. But his convictions were overturned in May and on the orders of three Appeal Court judges, he will now face a re-trial in January. Since winning the new trial, Mr Dizaei has insisted he should be treated as an innocent person and given his job back at the Met. The Police Appeals Tribunal ruled on Wednesday that he should be reinstated. But last night the Iranian-born policeman was suspended on full pay by the Metropolitan Police Authority. According to insiders, Mr Dizaei is likely to be entitled to back pay for his 18 months off the Scotland Yard payroll. This could be worth up to £180,000 with allowances. Mr Dizaei said today he would appeal against his suspension. ‘Yes I am, I think out of principle,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘I think your ordinary citizen will say a person is being paid a pay package he should earn and work for that money. ‘There are plenty of jobs I could be doing to earn the money I am being paid without interfering with frontline policing.’ He accused long-standing members of the MPA of being suspicious of non-white officers in senior positions at the Met. ‘I think you need to distinguish the difference between the Met and the police authority,’ he said. ‘I think there is an attitude within the police authority and particularly among some of the individuals who have been there for a very long time, the last 10 years, who simply say we do have a suspicion around senior ethnic minority officers.’ Dizaei is due to stand trial again early next year accused of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice.
