UK cop accuses boss of racism
2008-08-28 21:13
London - Britain's most senior Muslim police officer launched a stinging attack on Thursday on the controversial head of London's police, against whom he has launched a discrimination claim.
Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said it was with "deep regret" that he was taking Sir Ian Blair of the Metropolitan Police to an employment tribunal and denied the move was linked to unhappiness at not being promoted.
"My current case is essentially to do with my treatment at the highest levels of the Met, in particular the discrimination I have been subjected to over a long period by the present Commissioner Sir Ian Blair," Ghaffur said.
He added it also covered treatment he had faced in his current role as security coordinator for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
'Not an isolated incident'
Sitting alongside his client at a news conference in London, Ghaffur's lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari suggested that his case might not be an isolated one.
Asked whether he thought Blair or the Metropolitan Police was racist, Mireskandari told reporters: "When there are so (many) discrimination cases coming out by ethnic minorities, that speaks for itself...
"I think that there are even further allegations against Sir Ian at the moment which are probably just as serious, I think it's an accumulation of many allegations against him."
Alfred John, the chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, who was also at the press conference, added that Ghaffur's claim was "not an isolated incident".
He said that racism on both an institutional and individual level continued in the Metropolitan Police, also known as the Met.
In June, Blair described Ghaffur as "an esteemed colleague" and denied any suggestion that he was racist.
"I believe I have a long, honourable and occasionally bloodstained record of the championing of diversity, not perfect but always principled and consistent," Blair said at the time.
Ghaffur is one of four assistant commissioners, who are the third most senior officers in the force after the commissioner and deputy commissioner.
Discrimination on race and religion
He is claiming a reported £1.2 million pounds for alleged discrimination on grounds of race and religion.
Blair is one of two people named in his claim, which is expected to be ruled on by the tribunal in the next month.
The other is Richard Bryan, who works under Ghaffur on organising security for the next Olympic Games.
Blair faced heavy criticism over his handling of the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian shot dead by Met officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber two weeks after attacks in London that killed 52 people in 2005.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission watchdog said last year Blair had tried to block its probe into the case, while Menezes's family and Britain's two main opposition political parties said he should quit.
The Met was fined £175 000 for health and safety breaches over the killing.