An Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at US President George W. Bush in Baghdad last month is to seek political asylum in Switzerland, a Geneva lawyer told the daily La Tribune de Geneve yesterday.
Muntazer al-Zaidi gained instant international fame when he threw his shoes at Bush during the US president’s farewell visit to Iraq on Dec. 14, an action considered a grave insult in the Arab world.
“At the beginning of the month his family contacted me via the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] and I shall write this week to the federal department [ministry] of foreign affairs to encourage Switzerland to grant him political asylum,” lawyer Mauro Poggia told the paper.
Switzerland could give him asylum “without taking a position for or against the American intervention in Iraq,” he said.
Zaidi, a 29-year-old journalist for the Al-Baghdadia TV channel, had been due to appear before Iraq’s Central Criminal Court on Dec. 31 on charges of “aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit” and he faced up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
But the court decided to postpone the trial pending an appeal to a higher tribunal.
Even if many Iraqis supported his action, Zaidi was “at the mercy of all manner of extremists,” the lawyer said, adding: “He can no longer work as a journalist without suffering terrible pressure … his life can become hell in his country.”
Once settled in Geneva, the bachelor without children could “very well work as a journalist at the United Nations,” which has its European headquarters in Geneva, Poggia said.
After throwing his shoes at Bush, Zaidi also insulted the American president, shouting: “It is the farewell kiss, you dog.”
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed a campaign manager for a major Sunni party near the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, the latest sign that ethnic and sectarian tensions are rising ahead of this month’s provincial elections.
Police said the attacker detonated his explosives inside the reception area of Hassan al-Luheibi’s home in Qayara, 60km south of Mosul, after saying he had pressing business to discuss.
Bodyguards kept the bomber from going inside, but al-Luheibi emerged from the inner rooms to investigate the commotion and was killed in the blast, Colonel Safaa Abdul-Razzaq said. Two guards also were wounded, he said.
However, a police officer at the scene later said a fellow policeman was also killed in the attack and three others — including two policemen — were wounded. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to news media.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS