[Peace-discuss] Reuters: Iraq shoe-thrower said to be in hospital with broken arm

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/12/16/africa/OUKWD-UK-IRAQ-BUSH-SHOES.php

Iraq shoe-thrower said to be in hospital with broken arm

Reuters
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

By Waleed Ibrahim

An Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at U.S. President George W.
Bush in a fit of outrage was hit in the head with a rifle butt and had
an arm broken in chaotic scenes when he was leapt on by Iraqi security
officers, his brother said Tuesday.

TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, who called Bush a "dog" at a news
conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday, was in
a hospital in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, his brother
Maitham al-Zaidi said.

"All that we know is we were contacted yesterday by a person -- we
know him -- and he told us that Muntazer was taken on Sunday to
Ibn-Sina hospital," Maitham al-Zaidi said. "He was wounded in the head
because he was hit by a rifle butt, and one of his arms was broken."

The brother declined to identify the source of the information and his
comments could not be independently verified. Asked about the
brother's remarks, various Iraqi officials denied having
responsibility for the case.

The U.S. military said Zaidi was in the custody of the Iraqi military,
but a spokesman for the Iraqi defence minister denied this and said he
had no knowledge of Zaidi's condition.

After calling Bush a dog, Zaidi threw his shoes at the U.S. president
in an act of supreme insult. Bush had to duck to evade one of the
shoes.

Zaidi, whose family said he blamed Bush for the thousands of Iraqis
who died after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and who has been hailed as a
hero by many in the Arab world, was pounced on by security and dragged
away struggling and screaming.

An Iraqi official said Monday that the case was being referred to the courts.

TWO TO SEVEN YEARS IN JAIL?

The most likely charge against Zaidi would be one that allowed for up
to two years in prison for anyone who publicly insults a foreign
state, an international organisation or a foreign country's head of
state, said leading criminal lawyer Ali Ahmed Mansour.

"Based on my legal knowledge I am sure he will be charged with
insulting a president of a foreign state," Mansour said on Tuesday.
"He will be jailed for this action."

Zaidi could also conceivably be charged under another clause in the
1969 Iraqi penal code that allows for seven years in prison for anyone
who "insults the President or his representative," lawyers said.

The court would have to view Prime Minister Maliki as the modern day
equivalent of what the pre-Saddam Hussein penal code termed the
President, and would also have to decide whether Zaidi's insult to
Bush was also an insult to Maliki, experts said.

"Which article is used will definitely be up to the investigating
court to decide," said Tarq Harb, an Iraqi lawyer and recognized legal
expert.

"The government, executive or legislative authorities have nothing to
do with it, they have no right to intervene."

Lawyers said crimes referred to the courts by members of the Iraqi
cabinet were overseen by a body called the "Joint Investigatory
Committee," made up of U.S. officials, Iraqi federal police and Iraqi
justices, and are investigated by a special judge at the Iraqi Central
Criminal Court.