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Shoe throwing Iraqi journalist's release from jail postponed by a day | Iraq has postponed the release of the journalist who threw his shoe at former
US President George W Bush in Baghdad last year. Iraqi television journalist Muntazer
al-Zaidi will be released from prison a day later than expected, his brother said.
"He called me from the prison and said 'they won't release me today, they will
free me tomorrow'," The Telegraph quoted Durgham al-Zaidi, as saying in tears.
Zaidi, 30, was initially sentenced to three years for assaulting a foreign head
of state but had his jail time reduced to one year on appeal. He is being freed
early because of good behaviour. Zaidi shouted "it is the farewell kiss, you dog,"
at Bush on December 14 last year, seconds before hurling his size-10 shoes at
the man who ordered Iraq be invaded and occupied six-and-a-half years ago. Although
Bush, who successfully ducked to avoid the speeding footwear, laughed off the
attack, the incident caused massive embarrassment, to both him and Iraqi Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Zaidi faces the prospect of a very different life from
his previous existence as a journalist for Al-Baghdadia television, a small, privately
owned Cairo-based station, which has continued to pay his salary in jail. Zaidi's
boss has promised the previously little-known reporter a new home as a reward
for loyalty and the publicity that his actions, broadcast live across the world,
generated for the station. But there is talk of plum job offers from bigger Arab
networks, lavish gifts such as sports cars from businessmen, a celebrity status,
and reports that Arab women from Baghdad to the Gaza Strip want his hand in marriage. |
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