BAGHDAD: The journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush was handed over to the Iraqi judiciary, a top official said yesterday, a move that signals the start of criminal proceedings.
There were conflicting reports about the physical condition of Muntadar Al-Zeidi, who gained folk-hero status when he hurled both his shoes at Bush during a news conference on Sunday in Baghdad.
His employer, Al-Baghdadia television, reported that Al-Zeidi had been “seriously injured” — presumably beaten by guards — and called on the government to allow lawyers and the Iraqi Red Crescent to visit him.
Later, one of his brothers said on Al-Baghdadia that he had spoken by telephone with Al-Zeidi and that he told him “thank God, I am in good health.” “I felt from his voice that he is in good health,” his brother Maitham Al-Zeidi said. However, another brother, Durgham Al-Zeidi, said Muntadar had “a broken arm and ribs, and cuts to his eye and arm.”
After the Sunday incident, Al-Zeidi was initially held by the prime minister’s guards and later turned over to the Iraqi Army’s Baghdad command. The command, in turn, handed him over to the judiciary, the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t supposed to release the information.
The official would not elaborate, but referring the case to the judiciary usually signals the beginning of a lengthy process that could end in a criminal trial.
Earlier, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Al-Zeidi could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister, who was standing next to Bush when the shoes were thrown. The offense carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Many Iraqis, however, believe Al-Zeidi was a hero for insulting an American president widely blamed for the chaos that has engulfed their country.
In Mosul, an estimated 1,000 protesters carried banners and chanted slogans demanding Al-Zeidi’s release. A couple of hundred more also protested yesterday in Nasiriyah and Fallujah.
The head of the Iraqi Union of Journalists described Al-Zeidi’s action as “strange and unprofessional” but urged Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to give him clemency. “Even if he has committed a mistake, the government and the judiciary are broad-minded and we hope they consider his release because he has a family and he is still young,” Mouyyad Al-Lami told AP Television News.
Meanwhile, the White House declared yesterday there were “no hard feelings” over the shoe assault, and said it was up to the Iraqi government to determine if the assailant should be punished.
“The president harbors no hard feelings about the incident,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
“Obviously, he was very angry,” Perino said of Al-Zeidi. “The president believes that Iraq is a sovereign country, a democratic country, and they will have a process that they follow on this.”
