Scotland Yard Commander Ali Dizaei has said he will appeal against his suspension by the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA).
Mr Dizaei, who is facing a retrial for corruption, was suspended on full pay on Friday night within hours of the disclosure that he had been reinstated to the force.
The 49-year-old, who walked free from jail in May after his conviction was quashed, will receive his salary of around £90,000 before standing trial again early next year.
Mr Dizaei told BBC Radio 4 he would be appealing against the suspension, saying: "Yes I am, I think out of principle.
"I think your ordinary citizen will say a person is being paid a pay package he should earn and work for that money.
"There are plenty of jobs I could be doing to earn the money I am being paid without interfering with frontline policing."
He accused long-standing members of the MPA of being suspicious of non-white officers in senior positions at the Met.
"I think you need to distinguish the difference between the Met and the police authority," he said.
"I think there is an attitude within the police authority and particularly among some of the individuals who have been there for a very long time, the last 10 years, who simply say we do have a suspicion around senior ethnic minority officers."
Mr Dizaei is due to stand trial again early next year accused of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice. He launched a bid to get his job back after he was let out of Leyhill open prison when Lord Justice Hughes and two other judges said the Court of Appeal had been "driven to the conclusion" that his conviction "cannot be regarded as safe".