Iraqi scribe, who threw shoes at Bush, to seek asylum in Switz

LONDON: The Iraqi journalist, who threw shoes at outgoing US President George W Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last month, will seek political asylum in Switzerland, according to his lawyer.

Geneva-based lawyer Mauro Poggia, working on behalf of the Iraqi scribe Muntadhar al-Zeidi, has said that his client will go to the Swiss Embassy in Baghdad to formally file the asylum request once he's released from prison, the British media reported.

According to Poggia, al-Zeidi has been beaten and tortured in Iraqi detention and his life is in danger in the war-ravaged country.

Al-Zeidi, a television correspondent for Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV, is currently lodged in an Iraqi jail where he is awaiting trial on charges of assaulting a foreign leader for his outburst at a news conference in Baghdad.

In the middle of the news conference on December 14, al-Zeidi had stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog", before hurling a shoe at Bush but that narrowly missed him.

Showing the soles of shoes to someone is a sign of contempt in Arab culture.

With his second shoe, which the outgoing US President also managed to dodge, al-Zaidi had said: "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq."

Al-Zaidi was then wrestled to the ground by security personnel and hauled away.

"If you want the facts, it's a size 10 shoe that he threw," Bush had joked afterwards.