Iraqi Government Seeks Criminal Prosecution of Anti-Bush Protestor
By James Cogan
17 December,
2008
WSWS.org
Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the 29-year-old journalist who, in an act of protest, hurled his shoes at George Bush during a press conference on Sunday, was hauled before an investigating judge of the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad yesterday.
Zaidi was remanded in custody until the judge determines whether a
prosecution should proceed. An Iraqi interior ministry spokesman,
Abdel Karim Khalaf, told Reporters Without Borders that Zaidi may
face prosecution under three articles of the country's criminal code
that make it an offence to "insult a foreign head of state".
He could be prosecuted also for insulting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, who was standing beside Bush when the incident took place.
As a result, the journalist may face up to seven years' imprisonment.
If, however, he is charged with the more serious offence of attempting
to "assault" Bush, the potential prison term is 15 years.
Zaidi may appear before the court again today. If he is presented
in public, it will enable independent observers to confirm allegations
that he was severely beaten by US secret service agents and Iraqi
interior ministry operatives after his protest.
His brother, Maitham al-Zaidi, told Reuters on Tuesday: "All
that we know is we were contacted yesterday by a person—we know
him—and he told us that Muntadhar was taken on Sunday to Ibn-Sina
hospital. He was wounded in the head because he was hit by a rifle
butt and one of his arms was broken."
Another brother, Dargham al-Zaidi, said: "Muntadhar has a broken
arm, cracked ribs, some injuries under his eye and his leg is also
hurting him."
Iraqi journalists present at the press conference reported that security
personnel had assaulted Zaidi until "he was crying like a woman"
and that a trail of blood could be seen leading into the room where
they had dragged him.
Zaidi's protest has been lauded across Iraq, the Middle East and the
world as a symbolic demonstration of the true feelings of hundreds
of millions of people toward the Bush administration and its criminal
invasion and occupation of Iraq.
In Arab culture, to throw ones' shoes at someone is a sign of contempt
and disgust which words alone cannot express. As Zaidi hurled his
footwear one after another at the US president, he yelled: "This
is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog. This is from the
widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq."
Since the illegal invasion in March 2003, well over one million people
have lost their lives, four million have been forced from their homes
and every aspect of economic and social infrastructure has been devastated.
Like hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis, Zaidi had endured the
humiliation, terror and trauma of being detained by US troops. As
a journalist in the working class district of Sadr City reporting
on a US offensive earlier this year, he witnessed the mass killings
of both resistance fighters and civilians caught up in the crossfire.
The plight of the population is grim. The reality for most people
this winter is a day-to-day struggle to acquire sufficient food and
to stay warm. Surveys have found that close to 70 percent of families
survive on less than 250,000 dinars ($210) per month. Nearly a quarter
of children under five-years-old—that is, born under US occupation—have
suffered stunted growth due to malnutrition.
Claims that the invasion has established democracy carry little weight
among Iraqis. The Bush administration has promoted sectarian, ethnic
and tribal cliques whose only perspective is to use state power to
enrich themselves. A Shiite fundamentalist apparatus controls the
south as well as dominating Maliki's federal government. Kurdish nationalists
have established an autonomous region in the north, while Sunni tribal
chieftains are establishing virtual fiefdoms in the country's west
and other Sunni-populated areas. In their spheres of influence, each
of the factions is accused of systemic corruption, intimidation and
repression.
The unbridgeable chasm between the pro-occupation Iraqi political
elite and the mass of ordinary Iraqis is reflected in their reaction
to Zaidi's protest.
While Iraqis hailed the journalist, Maliki's cabinet issued a statement
that denounced throwing shoes at Bush—the man who authorised
the destruction of much of Iraq—as a "barbaric and ignominious
act". The interior ministry moved rapidly to bring the case into
the courts.
Tariq Harb, a high-profile Iraqi lawyer who pushed for the death penalty
against Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity, declared that
the insult of George Bush was "just too humiliating and unbelievable"
and called for Zaidi's prosecution.
Kurdish legislator Abdullah al-Alayawi denounced the protest as "irresponsible
conduct" and an "affront" to the Iraqi people. The
Kurdistan Press Syndicate, a media association that has said nothing
while press freedoms were curtailed in northern Iraq by the ruling
nationalist parties, issued a statement denouncing "the uncivilised
assault".
The head of the Sunni tribal Awakening Council in the western province
of Anbar, Ahmad Abu Risha, joined the condemnations. He and other
tribal leaders have been paid huge sums of money and placed in de-facto
control of Anbar for recruiting militias that assisted US forces during
the "surge" that began last year. Risha declared that "the
American president is the guest of all Iraqis" and had to be
treated with respect.
The political venom directed against Zaidi by these American puppets
for his act of defiance is an indication of just how fragile their
rule remains. His two shoes punctured the surreal and sycophantic
praise that was being heaped on Bush by the representatives of the
small minority of Iraqis who have benefited since 2003.
Just hours before the incident, Kurdish nationalist leader and Iraqi
president, Jalal Talibani, had welcomed the US president on his last
visit to Iraq as a man "who helped us liberate our country and
to reach this day in which we have democracy, human rights and prosperity
gradually in our country." Maliki lauded him as someone who "had
stood by Iraq and the Iraqi people for a very long time".
Zaidi's protest served as a reminder that the occupation has brought
nothing but death, destruction and misery, and engendered the hatred
of the vast majority of the Iraqi population. His subsequent treatment
underscores the anti-democratic methods on which the Bush administration
and its client regime continue to rely in order to maintain their
neo-colonial rule.
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