[Al Arabiya Latest] An Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at former American President George W. Bush was released from prison on Tuesday and greeted as a hero as he described how he was tortured in prison. Muntazer al-Zaidi, whose act of defiance during a news conference last December summed up the feelings of many Iraqis towards the former U.S. leader, was met outside jail by some parliamentarians who support his case.
"Today I am free again but my home is still a prison," he told reporters shortly after his release, a dig at the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq six and half years after the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
He was slurring his speech because of a missing tooth, but otherwise seemed in good health. His brothers alleged that Zaidi was beaten by guards after his arrest.
| After his arrest he probably was. He shamed them by his actions toward a guest. |
Zaidi added: "At the time that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on television that he could not sleep without being reassured on my fate ... I was being tortured in the worst ways, beaten with electric cables and iron bars."
He said he wanted an apology from Maliki, adding that his guards had also used simulated drowning on him -- the technique of water-boarding used by the Americans on suspects arrested over the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
| Yes, well the Iraqis are not Americans, and so they have different standards of behaviour. Next time Mr. al-Zaidi might want to misbehave on Western soil. |
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