Global Arab Network | Iraq - Freedom for shoe thrower

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Iraq - Freedom for shoe thrower

Global Arab Network - - Adam Turner

Tuesday, 15 September 2009 20:06

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has been released from jail after serving nine months of a one year sentence for assaulting a visiting head of state.

Speaking shortly after his release on Tuesday, al-Zeidi, 30, said he had been tortured while in prison and demanded that Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, apologise for withholding information about his treatment.

Al-Zeidi, whose release had been delayed by a day due to "red tape", said he had been beaten, whipped and been given electric shocks during his first few days in custody.

He was met outside the jail in Baghdad by parliamentarians who support his case, Uday al-Zeidi, his brother, said. The authorities had asked his family not to give him a hero's welcome.

Al-Zeidi had initially been sentenced to three years for assaulting a foreign head of state, but had his sentence reduced to a year on appeal.

While throwing his shoes at Bush at a news conference in Baghdad in December 2008, he shouted: "It is the farewell kiss, you dog."

Bush managed to duck the flying size 10 shoes.

Speaking on Tuesday, Al-Zeidi said: "At the time that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on television that he could not sleep without being reassured on my fate ... I was being tortured in the worst ways, beaten with electric cables and iron bars."

He said his guards had also used simulated drowning - the technique of waterboarding used by the US forces on suspects arrested over the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"Today I am free again but my home is still a prison," he added.

The US has kept its military presence in Iraq for six and half years since it led an invasion to remove Saddam Hussein, the former president.

Al-Baghdadiya television, al-Zeidi's employer, showed footage of him arriving at the station wrapped in an Iraqi flag and wearing sunglasses.

The staff slaughtered at least three sheep in his honour.

Uday al-Zeidi said: "I wish Bush could see our happiness. When President Bush looks back and turns the pages of his life, he will see the shoes of Muntadhar al-Zeidi on every page." (Reuters, AFP)

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