Ali Dizaei

Commander Ali Dizaei (born 1962) is a disgraced senior Metropolitan Police officer. Dizaei is an Iranian-born Muslim with dual British and Iranian nationality. On Februrary 8, 2010, Dizaei was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public office by Southwark Crown Court and has been sentenced to four years in prison. Dizaei was the head of the National Black Police Association.

According to the case brought against him, Dizaei arrested Waad al-Baghdadi, a web designer who claimed Dizaei owed him money, on a false accusation of court which he maintained in court. Dizaei maintains that the court proceedings against him are a "personal vendetta" led by the Crown Prosecution Service and the Indepedent Police Complaints Commission. A previous investigation into Dizaei by the Police - Operation HELIOS - was abandoned, and Dizaei subsequently claimed that the operation was racially motivated.

Ali Dizaei's case has become an important flashpoint in the debate over race and policing in the United Kingdom since the inquiry by Sir William Macpherson into the handling of the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation which stated that the Metropolitan Police was "institutionally racist".