Iraqi Shoe Thrower Is Released, Claiming Torture

By MARC SANTORA, New York Times

BAGHDAD — Hours after his release from prison, the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush said that he had been tortured while in jail, and his family said that he would flee Iraq, fearing for his life.

“Here I am free, and my country is still captured,” said the journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, during a news conference at the television station where he had worked.

He claimed that he was beaten with pipes and steel cables and that he received electric shocks while in custody. He added that he believed there were many who would like to see him dead, including unidentified American intelligence agencies.

Mr. Zaidi did not take questions after his brief remarks, but family members said he would travel to Greece, where he would receive medical and psychological care.

“He is going to flee,” said his brother, Uday al-Zaidi. Part of the reason he fears for his life, his brother said, is that he plans on releasing the names of people who played a role in his being tortured, including those who he said were high-ranking security officials.

Muntader al-Zaidi said that when he was arrested at the news conference, those inside could probably still hear his screams. He said he was shackled, soaked in water and kept in a place with no heat in the cold December night.

“I will name later those involved in torturing me, among them high ranking officials in the government and the Army,” he said.

Ali al-Mosawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, said that the accusations should be viewed skeptically since Mr. Zaidi had just been released from prison. He did not address the specific charges.

In a room packed with reporters and family members, Mr. Zaidi described once again the anger and helplessness he experienced after the American invasion in 2003, the suffering of widows and orphans he witnessed and why he felt compelled to wage a protest.

“I saw the chance and I seized it,” he said. “If those who blamed me knew how many destroyed houses I walked over with those shoes that I threw; and how many times those shoes mixed with the blood of the innocent; and how many times those shoes went into homes where the honor of those who lived there was disgraced, then it was probably the proper response.”

Security around the television studio where Mr. Zaidi spoke shortly after his release was stepped up, with dozens of police officers and other armed escorts cordoning off much of the neighborhood. On the streets, supporters banged drums, chanted his name and slaughtered sheep. Inside the station, family members wept with joy, even though they knew that Mr. Zaidi might not be able to return to Iraq in the near future.

The Iraqi government, which was acutely embarrassed by the episode, played down Mr. Zaidi’s release, barring the family from meeting him at the gates of the prison where he was held and, instead, quietly escorting him to his family’s residence in the capital. Given Mr. Zaidi’s cult hero status, his charges that he was mistreated could resonate widely.

Mr. Zaidi, 30, was originally sentenced to three years in prison, but this spring that was reduced to a one-year jail term. He was released after nine months behind bars for good behavior, court officials said.

A journalist for the independent Iraqi television station, al-Baghdadiya, Mr. Zaidi hurtled to fame in December as Mr. Bush spoke at a news conference during his final visit to Iraq during his administration.

As stunned members of the traveling White House press corps and other Iraqi journalists looked on, Mr. Zaidi rose from his seat and shouted in Arabic, “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!”

He then whipped one of his shoes straight at Mr. Bush’s head, narrowly missing him as the former president quickly ducked.

Before anyone could react, Mr. Zaidi, only 12 feet from Mr. Bush, had his other shoe in hand and shouted once again, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!”

Prime Minister Maliki, standing at a lectern next to Mr. Bush, stuck a hand in front of the president’s face to help shield him, and, once again, Mr. Bush ducked and was not struck.

Mr. Zaidi was then wrestled to the ground and hustled out of the room.

On Tuesday, he said he was severely beaten by Iraqi security officers even as he could hear the news conference continue inside.

Even as his wails could be heard outside, Mr. Bush first joked that he could report that the shoe was a size ten. Then he played down the episode, saying it was a sign of democracy.

“That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves,” he said.

Mr. Zaidi described what happened over the next few hours. “At the time the Prime Minister went on a satellite television station, saying that he did not go to sleep until he made sure that I found a comfortable bed and a cover, at the very same moment he was talking, I was being tortured,” he said. He added that his treatment in custody included “electric shocks and being beaten by electric cables and steel rods.”

Mr. Zaidi offered no proof and looked in fine physical condition at his news conference, but he was missing a front tooth.

Even after nine months in jail, Mr. Zaidi on Tuesday did not back down from his denunciation of Mr. Bush and the war.

“He wants us to say goodbye with flowers,” Mr. Zaidi said, once again explaining why he threw his show at the American president. “This was my rose to him.”

The incident, which was shown repeatedly on television programs across the globe, immediately captured the imagination of many both inside and outside Iraq. For many, it seemed to crystallize the deep anger felt by many toward the United States and its occupation of Iraq.

From Libya, where he was awarded a Medal of Freedom, to Syria, where banners of praise were unfurled on street corners and his photo was shown on state television all day, Mr. Zaidi was lionized.

There was even an offer from a wealthy Saudi citizen to buy one of the shoes for $10 million. It is unclear where the shoes actually are at the moment, but an Iraqi security official said he believed they are still being held by the government.

Despite the reaction in the wider Arab world, the incident has proved more fraught in Iraq itself.

The fact that Mr. Zaidi, who is a Sunni Muslim, might chose to leave Iraq is a testament to the lingering doubts about security and sectarian divides in the country.

Mr. Maliki initially said that he believed Mr. Zaidi had been put up to the act by a “head cutter,” apparently referring to Sunni insurgents tied to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which frequently beheaded their enemies.

Mr. Zaidi said that he had no ties to political groups and that he was acting purely out of rage at what the American occupation had cost Iraq.

He also accused the prime minister of being disingenuous, telling the public how he wanted Mr. Zaidi to return to his home safely and without injury even as government security forces were involved in torturing him.

For several months, government officials wrangled over the question of what charges Mr. Zaidi should face and whether Mr. Bush’s trip should even be considered a state visit since his news conference took place in the Green Zone, which was then still controlled by the American military.

There were concerns raised about how Mr. Zaidi was treated in prison from that day he was arrested, even leading to a contentious session of Parliament that led to threats of resignation by the body’s speaker.

And while Mr. Zaidi certainly captured the anger of many Sunni Iraqis who feel that they have lost standing in the new Shiite-led government, even that emotion is complicated by the fact that for many Sunnis, American forces have increasingly been viewed as their protectors in some ways.

Mr. Zaidi said that the divisions that have left his country “burned” and “raped” were the direct result of the invasion. And after six years of bearing witness as a journalist, he could no longer contain himself.

“I was roaming throughout the past years of the war in our scorched land and I was seeing with my own eyes the pains of the victims and hearing the weeping of the grieving women and orphans,” he said. “Shame was chasing me, like an ugly name for my helplessness.”

Through clenched teeth, he promised himself that if the chance came he would avenge those victims.

“The chance came,” he said. “And I did not miss it. “

Amir A. al-Obeidi, Abeer Mohammed and Saad al-Izzi contributed reporting for this article.