Police commander ‘stabbed himself in false arrest’

One of Britain’s most senior policemen stabbed himself as part of a plan to frame a web designer in a row over an unpaid bill, a court heard yesterday. Ali Dizaei, a commander with the Met, abused his position to have the man arrested and held overnight, it was alleged.

As he handcuffed Waad Al-Baghdadi, Dizaei is alleged to have said: ‘I’ll f*** your life. You think I don’t know what you do in London. I’ll find every single detail about your life.’ He then set about fabricating the assault, going as far as to ‘self- inflict’ wounds, the court heard.

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said the dispute arose after Mr Al-Baghdadi designed a website for the 47-year-old police officer. He claimed he was owed £600 for the work and confronted Dizaei outside a restaurant in Kensington, west London, in July 2008.



The pair argued, during which Dizaei offered to take the dispute ‘round the corner’. Mr Al-Baghdadi declined and dialled 999 to say he had been threatened, the court heard. But Dizaei had followed him, handcuffed him and called the same police operator to say he was the victim of a stabbing.

‘These are allegations we say that involved the wholesale abuse of power by a senior police officer for entirely personal and oblique motives,’ Mr Wright said. ‘It involves abusing the power invested in him by virtue of his office and rank in that he assaulted, he detained and he subsequently accused a fellow citizen of criminal conduct. It involves pursuing a wholly false allegation thereby exposing that citizen to continued detention and risk of prosecution.’

Mr Wright said a police doctor examined injuries to Dizaei’s torso and concluded they were ‘consistent with self-inflicted injuries’. Dizaei denies gross misconduct and perverting the course of justice. The trial at Southwark crown court continues.