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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. 
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.
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