Al-Zaidi: 'I'd Throw Shoes Again' While Sales of the Footwear Soar

Posted by Lisa Derrick, Firedoglake at 10:43 AM on December 22, 2008.

The trial of shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, charged with assaulting a foreign head of state visiting Iraq, begins Dec. 31. Abdul Satar Birqadr, spokesman for Iraq's High Judicial Council, said a three-judge panel would hear the case:

The case is not complicated, and I expect it won't take a great deal of time to reach a ruling.

U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has condemned al-Zaidi's actions, but reportedly he will not want to alienate al-Zaidi's supporters: Provincial elections are next month. The prime minister met with Iraqi journalists Sunday, praising the media and pledging justice would run its course -- even if that meant al-Zaidi went free. Iraqi authorities will give the media full access to the trial, due in part to the worldwide interest and sensitivity of the case.

Al-Zaidi's brother said the reporter would toss footwear again if he had the chance. Reuters reports:

Uday al-Zaidi said his brother had told an investigative judge Sunday that he had expected to be shot after hurling his first shoe.

But when that did not happen, " 'that gave me time to throw the second (shoe),' " al-Zaidi quoted his brother. " 'If the clock were turned back, I'd do the same thing over again.' "

The journalist shows signs of have been beaten, his brother and lawyer report, and that his brother

had been tortured into telling the authorities that someone persuaded him to throw his shoes at Bush.

Meanwhile, Istanbul shoemaker Ramazan Baydan, who claims to have designed the black oxford known as Ducati Model 271 has seen his orders soar for what is now called "the Bush shoe." A British distributor placed an order for 95,000 pair, and a American company orderd 18,000 pair. Five thousand sales posters of the shoe with the slogan, "Goodbye Bush, Hello Democracy" in Turkish, Arabic and English are ready for distribution.

Tagged as: bush, iraq, abuse, shoe, iraqi reporter, muntader al-zaidi