National News
Dizaei found guilty for second time
3:37pm Monday 13th February 2012
Britain's most controversial police chief faces a return to jail after being found guilty of corruption for a second time.
Scotland Yard commander Ali Dizaei will never wear police uniform again after being convicted unanimously at his retrial of misconduct and perverting the course of justice.
He was first convicted of framing Waad al-Baghdadi in a street row in 2010 - but he walked out of Leyhill open prison a year later after the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction.
Guilty verdicts for a second time mean there is now no way back for Dizaei, who created a web of lies to cover his tracks.
Despite new evidence about Iraqi Mr al-Baghdadi's immigration status, jurors were not swayed by Dizaei's denials. They found he attacked the young Iraqi businessman before arresting and attempting to frame him.
The convictions spell the end of the Iranian officer's career spanning three decades.
He won his job back with the Metropolitan Police before the retrial but has been suspended on his full salary of £90,000.
Dizaei previously emerged unscathed from a series of inquiries over the years, including a multimillion-pound undercover operation examining claims of corruption, fraud and dishonesty.
However the 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. He 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.