Breaking News - Court reduces sentence for Iraqi shoe thrower

BAGHDAD - As per breaking news, Iraq's highest court on Tuesday reduced the prison sentence for an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush from three years to one, a court spokesman said.

Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, the spokesman, said the decision was taken because the journalist had no prior criminal history.

The defense appealed the original ruling to the Federal Appeals Court citing an Iraqi law stipulating a maximum sentence of only two years for publicly insulting a visiting foreign leader.

The decision came as Barack Obama made his first official visit to Iraq as U.S. president.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi was sentenced to three years in March after pleading not guilty to a charge of assaulting a foreign leader. He described his action as a "natural response to the occupation."

The journalist's act during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world, where the former U.S. president is reviled for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Defense attorneys have long argued that al-Zeidi's act was an expression of freedom and not a crime, and his lawyer on Tuesday said he should be freed immediately.

"We think al-Zeidi does not deserve to be imprisoned even for one day," al-Zeidi's chief defense attorney, Diaa al-Saadi, told The Associated Press. "What he has done falls in the category of freedom of expression and he was trying to express his anti-occupation feelings,"

Another al-Zeidi attorney, Yahya al-Ittabi, however, welcomed the court's decision, saying it did not bow to government pressure and reflected "the independence and the integrity of the Iraqi judiciary system."

But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has had little sympathy for the journalist, saying the incident was more than just an insult. He described it as an assault on a visiting head of state.

Karim al-Shujairi, one of al-Zeidi's attorneys, said the appeal was filed about a week ago.

Al-Zeidi has been in Iraqi custody since he hurled shoes at Bush during a joint news conference with al-Maliki in December 2008.

Though al-Zeidi is scheduled to be released in December 2009, al-Saadi said he could be free within five months with credit for good behavior.

The news came as a surprise to al-Zeidi's family, who called it "a victory for the Iraqi people."

"We did not expect that my brother would be released before the three years," al-Zeidi's brother, Dargham, told The AP.

In this Dec. 14, 2008 file photo, 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, Iraq. Iraq's highest court reduced the prison sentence Tuesday April 7, 2009 for an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush from three years to one, a court spokesman said. The decision came as Barack Obama made his first official visit to Iraq as U.S. president.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Shoe-throwing-journalist-faces-court-trial

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Breaking News) -- The case against an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has been referred to trial after the detained reporter met with an investigative judge late Tuesday, two sources told esolgsm live news reporter.

President Bush, left, ducks a shoe as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki tries to protect him Sunday, video shown by live news channels.

Muntadhar al-Zaidi will most likely be charged with assaulting a foreign head of state under the Iraqi penal code, according to a source with the Iraqi Central Criminal Court.

Al-Zaidi, who has been hailed a hero by many Iraqis protesting his detention, met Tuesday evening with an investigative judge who referred the case to trial, the source said.

Al-Zaidi's employer, Egypt-based Al-Baghdadia TV confirmed the meeting took place at the reporter's holding cell in Baghdad's Green Zone, according to the network's spokesman Abdul Hamid al-Saeh.

It is unclear when the trial will begin.

There were country-wide protests against his detention on Tuesday, including at Diyala University in Baquba, the Anbar province city of Falluja, and in Baghdad.

Al-Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush while the American president and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki were holding a Sunday news conference after Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad. The journalist was dragged to the ground, hustled out of the room and arrested. Watch Muntadhar al-Zaidi throw his shoes at Bush »

Shouting as he was knocked to the floor, the reporter called his shoe-throwing -- a traditional insult in Arab culture -- a "farewell kiss" to a "dog" who launched the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Dhirgham al-Zaidi, the shoe-thrower's brother, has said the journalist hated the "material American occupation" and Iranian influence in Iraq.

He told CNN Tuesday he is worried his brother might be killed after he is released from custody.

"I am worried he will be hurt ... he is a stubborn person. Even if he comes out of detention on a wheelchair he will never leave Iraq," Dhirgham al-Zaidi said. "I am worried they will assassinate him in Iraq."

He said he did not believe his brother planned to throw the shoe, but it might have occurred to him when he was asked to cover the news conference, because his brother changed from foreign-made shoes into Iraqi-made ones beforehand.

Asked about the incident by CNN's Candy Crowley, Bush said, "I didn't have much time to reflect on anything, I was ducking and dodging."

He said the journalist was "looking for notoriety" and that authorities shouldn't "overact" in their treatment of him.

TV networks across the world continue to air the shoe-throwing scene, which has touched a nerve in the Arab world, where there has been an outpouring of support for the Al-Baghdadia reporter.

Al-Baghdadia TV -- which has been airing rolling live coverage about the incident -- is urging his release and has invited guests into its studio that support him.