The Iraqi journalist who became an icon for critics of the US-led invasion when he hurled his shoes at former president George W Bush went on trial yesterday and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Muntazer al-Zaidi, whose shoe-throwing protest overshadowed Mr Bush’s final visit to Iraq in December and who also called the former US president a “dog” – both insults in the Middle East – is charged with assaulting a visiting head of state. When Zaidi threw the shoes, he shouted at Mr Bush in Arabic: “This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
Zaidi was handcuffed and surrounded by security guards when he was brought to Iraq’s central criminal court in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone yesterday. Family members and supporters waiting inside the courthouse greeted him with applause and cheers as he was brought in and draped an Iraqi flag across his shoulders.
The chief judge threatened to order everybody out of the room if they didn’t calm down. The trial was later adjourned until March 12th.
In his first public appearance since he was taken into custody on December 14th, Zaidi said he did not intend to harm Mr Bush or to embarrass the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. He failed to apologise in the court and instead appealed defiantly to the pride of his country.
“What made me do it was the humiliation Iraq has been subjected to due to the US occupation and the murder of innocent people,” he said. “I wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart from using weapons.”
The journalist has been imprisoned for more than two months and his family complains that he was beaten after being pounced on by security guards at Mr Bush’s news conference. Zaidi also alleged during his testimony to the three-judge panel that he was tortured while in jail – something the Iraqi government has denied.
Zaidi, a reporter for an Iraqi television station based in Cairo, became a hero in much of the Middle East. Mr Bush, whose support of Israel and decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein made him passionately disliked in many parts of the Middle East, nimbly ducked out of the way of the first shoe and made light of the incident afterwards. The second shoe also missed.
Zaidi’s defence lawyers lost an appeal to have the charges reduced to insulting Mr Bush, a lesser offence. They argued he could not have truly hurt Bush with a shoe.
