Ali Dizaei accused of having 'gangster character'

Commander Ali Dizaei (Reuters)

An alleged victim of corruption by a Scotland Yard commander today accused the defendant's barrister of telling lies.

Waad Al-Baghdadi also told a court he had been living in fear of a police chief with a "gangster character".

Giving evidence against Ali Dizaei, Waad Al-Baghdadi told jurors that Stephen Riordan QC was asking impossible questions.

Mr Riordan told the Iraqi web designer "you are a liar" in a heated exchange at London's Southwark Crown Court.

Mr Al-Baghdadi replied: "No - of course not. I think you are a liar."

The defence barrister later added: "You are lying about everything in this aren't you?"

Mr Al-Baghdadi responded: "No, not at all. You want to make it look like I am lying."

Dizaei "is a dangerous guy", Mr Al-Baghdadi added.

"People are afraid of him... he has two characters," Mr Al-Baghdadi said with a raised voice in the witness box.

"If he talks to you with the gangster character he had, you would be very afraid."

Dizaei denies embarking on a "wholesale abuse" of his police powers by inflicting injuries on himself in a bid to frame Mr Al-Baghdadi following a row outside a west London restaurant.

Dizaei looked on from the dock as Mr Riordan told Mr Al-Baghdadi he was "setting up a story" and "telling a pack of lies".

Mr Al-Baghdadi replied: "This is James Bond, not Waad Al-Baghdadi."

The QC replied: "Not James Bond, but someone clever and devious. You are clever and devious aren't you?"

Mr Al-Baghdadi, wearing a black shirt and dark trousers, denied the accusation.

Dizaei, 49, took advantage of his position as a senior Metropolitan Police officer to further his own interests, the Crown claims.

He is said to have threatened and arrested Iraqi Waad Al-Baghdadi in a dispute over payment for a personal website, AliDizaei.com.

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said actions like Dizaei's have a "corrosive" impact "between citizen and police generally".

Dizaei, from Acton, west London, pleaded not guilty to charges of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice.

The £90,000-a-year senior officer is a former president of the National Black Police Association.

The case centres on a confrontation at the Persian Yas restaurant in Hammersmith Road, Kensington, in July 2008.

Jurors have already been informed the case is a retrial.

PA