A court heard yesterday that a senior Metropolitan Police officer used the power of his office to intimidate, falsely accuse and wrongly arrest a man in a personal dispute.
Commander Ali Dizaei was accused at Southwark Crown Court of chasing Waad al-Baghdadi from a restaurant, before handcuffing him and threatening to “find out every detail” about his life.
Al-Baghdadi was taken away in a police van, fingerprinted, DNA tested and held overnight before being interviewed under caution. No charges were brought against him and he subsequently made a formal complaint, which resulted in the current case.
Dizaei has also been accused of faking an injury that he claimed had been caused by al-Baghdadi.
Dizaei is standing trial on charges of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice. He denies both charges, reports the Times.
Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution said that the allegations against Dizaei represented “the wholesale abuse of power by a senior police officer for entirely personal and oblique motives”.
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At the time of the incident, in 2008, Dizaei was a Scotland Yard commander with overall responsibility for policing 10 West London boroughs.
The trial continues.
