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Top UK cop was suspected of spying for the Iranians

One of Britain's most senior police officers accused the nation's security service, MI5, on Wednesday night of "smearing" him after it emerged that the security service told Scotland Yard it suspected him of being an Iranian spy.

The Guardian newspaper learned that the warning about Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei was one of the principal reasons the force pursued him for four years, mounting a corruption inquiry costing at least ?3 million. He was suspended amid allegations of drug use, corruption and threatening national security, but was cleared by a jury of minor criminal charges.

The Metropolitan Police (Met)'s anti-corruption squad bugged his phones, investigated his bank accounts, tracked their own officer to the US and set him several integrity tests which he passed. A key reason why it was so determined to see him convicted was a claim by MI5 that he was suspected of being an agent of influence for the Iranian government. Informed sources say MI5 based its warning on the officer's association with people from the Iranian embassy and nationals, his visits to the embassy, and an intercept by the UK's eavesdropping station at GCHQ.

Chief Superintendent Dizaei, who now runs policing in a west London borough, was born in Iran and holds dual UK and Iranian citizenship.

He said: "MI5 should be ashamed of themselves, as should the police service. This allegation is wholly baseless and false and it is outrageous that it could still be used to blight my career. It is nothing more than a smear."

Dizaei consented to the Guardian publishing details of the allegation because he said he had nothing to hide.

The Met's investigation began in July 1999. By October he was the subject of wiretaps and covert surveillance into his alleged drug use, that proved baseless. In mid 2000, the Scotland Yard squad received the intelligence from MI5.

After his acquittal in 2003 the force paid him ?80,000 in compensation.

In a deal reached after pressure from the home secretary at the time, David Blunkett, he also returned to work with the Met.
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