Thursday, January 1, 2009

Shoe-throwing journalist's trial postponed

Image: Muntadhar al-Zeidi
Evan Vucci / AP file
Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi throws a shoe at President George W. Bush during a new conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad on December 14.

BAGHDAD - The trial of the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has been postponed, an Iraqi official said Tuesday.

The trial of Muntadhar al-Zeidi was to begin Wednesday on charges of assaulting a foreign leader. But Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, a spokesman for Iraq's Higher Judicial Court, said that the trial has been postponed indefinitely pending a high court ruling on what charges the journalist should face.

Al-Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush during a Dec. 14 joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The gesture of contempt for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq made al-Zeidi a folk hero in Iraq and thousands of people have demonstrated for his release.

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