BAGHDAD: The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush says he would do it again and that he was forced to write a letter of apology after being tortured in jail, the journalist’s brother claimed yesterday.
Muntadar Al-Zeidi’s action during a Dec. 14 news conference with Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki has been repeatedly broadcast worldwide, making him a symbol for opponents of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis have rallied to demand his release.
Al-Zeidi’s trial on charges of assaulting a foreign leader is to begin Dec. 31, said Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, a spokesman for the Iraqi Higher Judicial Court. A conviction could bring up to two years in prison.
The prime minister’s office said last week that Al-Zeidi had written a letter of apology and asked Al-Maliki to recommend a pardon. But his brother, Uday Al-Zeidi, told The Associated Press that the letter was written against the journalist’s will.
“He told me that he has no regret because of what he did and that he would do it again,” Uday Al-Zeidi said by telephone.
He said he visited his brother in jail on Sunday and found him with a missing tooth and cigarette burns on his ears.
Muntadar told his brother that jailers also doused the journalist with cold water while he was naked, Uday Al-Zeidi said.
The investigating judge in the case has said that the journalist was beaten around the face and eyes when he was wrestled to the ground after throwing the shoes.
“The thing that makes you cry and laugh at the same time is that when the prime minister said that my brother was not tortured and will not be tortured, he was under severe torture by security authorities,” he said.
“When I saw him yesterday, there were bruises on his face and body. He told me that they used an iron bar to hit him when they took him out of the press conference room. He told me that he began screaming and thought all those at the press conference would have heard his voice,” Uday Al-Zeidi told Associated Press Television News.
