One Way or Another

I am the last person who would seek to condone an unlawful arrest from a corrupt policeman but the conviction today of Commander Ali Dezaei has some very questionable aspects to it.

Having seen the CCTV evidence, it would appear Dezaei was wrong to arrest some pain-in-the-arse guy hassling him for an unpaid bill of £600. But the language used to describe his actions by the bastions of the plod establishment would better equate Dezaei to the institutional corrupt Met coppers of the 1970s rather than this piffling affair.

CPS said these actions amounted to "serious offences of corruption". Met Chief Stephenson said Dezaei had, "damaged the reputation of the entire police service." The not so Independent Police Complaints Commission said he was no more than, "a criminal in uniform."

The offence does not look remotely proportionate to a sentence of four years imprisoment - for most officers it would pass with a disciplinary hearing and a mild rebuke.

Dezaei was arrogant enough to pursue the arrest and his legion of enemies in the Met must have cheered long and hard when they realised they had finally come across some evidence of wrongdoing. The media reports are all referring to how Dezaei had evaded justice previously in a "multi-million pound trial" as if he were already a serious crim who had got off before on a technicality.

The fact that the Met spent over £3m of public money pursuing him over some insignificant expense claim says more about the senior officers desire to prosecute a colleague who accused them of racism than Dezaei's probability of guilt. The case was dismissed through a lack of evidence.

"Senior sources" at the Yard were quite content to feed libellous stories to the media about Dezaei frequenting prostitutes, using drugs, employing illegal immigrants, money-laundering even spying for Iran. The News of the World was the latest paper to pay him extensive damages.
Whether Dezaei can be freed soon on appeal may be doubtful, certainly his police career is stone dead. But the relish with which he was condemned so roundly by his peers for a effectively an incident of wrongful arrest, which must happen regularly, makes me have deep suspicions of their motives.

It may not be the fair name of British Justice which was being protected but the fair skin of those who uphold its institutions.