A State Within A State

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that in 1999 the Met Police Anti-Corruption squad unlawfully tapped the telephone conversations of Chief superintendent Ali Dizaei, the Met's most senior Muslim officer and legal adviser to the National Black Police Association, in 1999. The operation - codenamed Helios - was directly overseen by Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, back when he was deputy commissioner.

The team of 40 officers monitored over 3,500 phone calls made by Ali Dizaei from Kensington police station and the NBPA offices. Ostensibly the investigation was looking into unfounded allegations that Dizaei was an Iranian spy, although Keith Jarrett, president of the NBPA, cast doubt over the sincerity of the investigation:

“The significance of this judgment is to tell the Met that they can’t treat people in this way. It was an attempt to destroy the NBPA, not a corruption inquiry.”

At the time Dizaei was advising officers who were suing the Met for racial discrimination and victimisation. Moreover, despite the fact that this was the biggest police corruption case ever mounted, costing millions, it failed to substantiate any criminal allegation against Dizaei. A token prosecution was brought for an alleged £270 false expense claim but Dizaei was acquitted.

What is most alarming about this case, is not that the Met Police Commissioner headed an unlawful racist and political motivated investigation or indeed that the Met Anti-Corruption squad is itself tainted by racism and corruption; it is that the Prime Minister and then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, would have been fully appraised of the details of operation Helios yet still approved Sir Ian Blair's appointment as Met Police commissioner. This signals an approval of what amounts to a state within a state.