BAGHDAD — The case began with a news conference and ended with one too. But this time no footwear flew.
Instead, Muntather Zaidi, an Iraqi television correspondent who gained notoriety when he hurled his loafers at then-President George W. Bush, used the occasion of his release from jail Tuesday to accuse Iraqi security and government personnel of torturing him in custody.
Zaidi, who was tackled by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's bodyguards after cursing Bush and flinging his shoes at the American president in December at a Baghdad news conference, was welcomed with a triumphant homecoming at his television station. He told reporters at the Baghdadiya satellite channel offices that he was beaten, whipped and shocked during his first days of incarceration.
"Here I am free and the country is still a prisoner," said a sedate Zaidi, with an Iraqi flag draped around his shoulders.
His manner was a far cry from the fateful moment when he yelled at Bush: "This is a gift from the Iraqis! This is the farewell kiss, you dog!" He then lofted a loafer, which Bush nimbly dodged, before Maliki helped shield the American leader from the second shoe.
Iraq's central criminal court sentenced Zaidi to three years in prison for assaulting a visiting head of state, but the judiciary later shortened his sentence to one year and then ordered him released this month.
Later Tuesday he left for Greece to seek medical treatment, according to his brother Uday Zaidi.
During his appearance earlier in the day, Muntather Zaidi, missing a front tooth since going to jail, reiterated the allegations aired by his family during his jail time that he was beaten immediately after his arrest. Security guards began pummeling him even as the news conference continued inside the prime minister's residence, Zaidi claimed.
"The Iraqi prime minister was shown in the media saying he did not sleep until he checked on me, and then only after I found a comfortable bed and a cover, [but] at these moments when he was speaking I was getting tortured in the most terrible ways possible, by electric shock, beatings by cables, being beaten by steel bars," Zaidi said.
"I demand an apology from Mr. Maliki for hiding the truth from the people," he said.
The bespectacled Zaidi promised to later reveal the names of the government officials and Iraqi army officers who beat him. Zaidi, 30, also heaped scorn on Iraqi politicians for the treatment of detainees.
