Police chief ‘lied over assault’
ONE OF Britain’s most senior police officers assaulted and falsely arrested a man in a row over money, a court heard yesterday.
Metropolitan Police Commander Ali Dizaei even injured himself to make it look like he had been attacked, it was alleged.
Dizaei, in full uniform, chased Waad Al Baghdadi down the street in his car before pushing him against a wall and handcuffing him, the jury was told.
At one point, he allegedly told the young man: “I will **** your life.”
The officer then lied in an official statement that Mr Al Baghdadi had assaulted him, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard. He claimed the young man had “stabbed” him in the stomach with the mouthpiece of a shisha pipe during a bust-up outside a Persian restaurant, the jury was told.
But a police doctor later concluded the wounds were “more likely to be consistent with self-inflicted injuries”, the court heard.
The two men clashed after Mr Al Baghdadi demanded £600 from the commander for work on his personal website, the court heard. Dizaei, 47, denies misconduct in a public office and attempting to pervert the course of justice between July 17 and July 20, 2008.
The trial continues.