Ali Dizaei 'reinstated as Met police commander'

The former police chief whose corruption convictions were quashed says he has returned to Scotland Yard

Ali Dizaei, who was dismissed from the Metropolitan police over corruption convictions which were later quashed. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

Ali Dizaei, the former police chief who was dismissed over convictions for corruption only for them to be quashed, has been reinstated as a commander at Scotland Yard, he says.

Dizaei, who spent more than a year in prison after being convicted of abusing his power as a senior police officer, still faces a retrial on the charges.

He said a police appeal tribunal unanimously dismissed his sacking. "I am delighted to be reinstated. I have always wanted to be a Met police officer and now vow to clear my name." There was no immediate comment from the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Dizaei was jailed for four years in January 2010 after a jury at Southwark crown court found that he had tried to frame a young web designer in a row over £600. Dizaei was dismissed from the police service in disgrace, ending a 25-year career. But in May this year, the court of appeal ruled that new evidence "significantly discredits" the principal witness against him.

Dizaei was a vocal critic of Scotland Yard's record on race and some of his colleagues were said to have greeted his conviction by popping champagne corks.

After his conviction his wife investigated the background of his main accuser, Waad al-Baghdadi, and found the jury at the original trial were asked to believe he was of good character, unaware he was allegedly using the name of his dead father to steal thousands of pounds from the British benefits system. Dizaei said the fact that his wife, who had no training in investigative skills, could uncover this, showed how poor the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission had been.

During the appeal hearing it also emerged that Baghdadi told the jury he was born and lived in Iraq, when he was born in Iran. Baghdadi had also given the jury the wrong information about his date of birth and had not testified under his real name. The court of appeal found he had "maintained those false details … on oath before the jury" and was helped to enter the UK by a false document as he escaped "the cauldron of Iraq/Iran".