Legal News

Expressing Oneself to the Occupier ? The Punishment for Shoe Tossing

By Dan Slater

Which of the following charges and punishments are appropriate for Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi television reporter who flung his shoes at President Bush during a news conference?

a) Charge: Initiating an aggressive act against the head of a foreign state on an official visit. Punishment: Potentially seven years in prison.

b) Charge: Insulting the leader of a foreign nation. Punishment: Up to two years in prison or a fine of 200 Iraqi dinars, about 17 cents.



A protest against the visit to Iraq by U.S. President George Bush, in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Dec. 15, 2008. (AP/Karim Kadim)


c) Charge: Simple aggression. Punishment: Up to one year in prison or a fine.

The NYT reports that Zaidi, 29, who’s apparently become somewhat of a folk hero in much of the Arab world, appears today before a judge, the first step in a potential criminal prosecution against him.

A judge will decide whether there is sufficient cause to try Zaidi, 29, who’s been held by the authorities since Sunday but has not yet been charged. Iraqi criminal lawyers not involved in the case tell the Times that he could possibly face one of the three charges laid out above.

Zaidi’s employer, Al Baghdadia, a Cairo-based satellite television network, said it had appointed Dheyaa Saadi, president of the Union of Lawyers in Iraq, to lead a team of lawyers to defend Zaidi.

Saadi told the Times that he would ask that the case against Zaidi be dropped. “I will introduce myself as his lawyer and demand the case be closed and Muntader be released because he did not commit a crime,” he said. “He only freely expressed himself to the occupier, and he has such a right according to international law.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).