Muntadhar al-Zaidi

Muntadhar al-Zaidi (منتظر الزيدي Muntaẓar az-Zaydī; born 15 January 1979) is an Iraqi broadcast journalist who served as a correspondent for Iraqi-owned, Egyptian-based Al-Baghdadia TV.

, al-Zaidi works with a Lebanese TV channel.

He began working as a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia TV in 2005.

On 16 November 2007, al-Zaidi was kidnapped by unknown assailants in Baghdad.

He was also previously twice arrested by the United States Armed Forces.

He first became known as a victim of a kidnapping by unknown assailants in November 2007.

Al-Zaidi has also been arrested twice by the United States Armed Forces.

He lives in a two-room apartment in central Baghdad.

He is of the Shia Muslim faith and also is of Sayyid descent.

On Friday morning, 16 November 2007, al-Zaidi was kidnapped on his way to work in central Baghdad.

Unknown armed men forced him into a car, where he was beaten until he lost consciousness.

The assailants used al-Zaidi's necktie to blindfold him and bound his hands with shoelaces.

He was held captive with little food and drink and questioned about his work as a journalist.

During his disappearance, al-Zaidi was reported missing by Iraq's Journalistic Freedoms Observatory.

On 18 November, Reporters Without Borders "voiced deep concern" in a statement about al-Zaidi's detention.

No ransom demand was made, and al-Zaidi's kidnappers released him, still blindfolded, on to a street three days later at around 3 a.m. on Monday, 19 November 2007, whereafter al-Zaidi's brother picked him up.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees mentioned al-Zaidi's kidnapping in a December 2007 report that listed violent incidents in the media, in particular, incidents targeting journalists in Baghdad.

According to the report,

"journalists and media workers and other professionals continue to be targets for kidnapping and assassination."

After his kidnapping, al-Zaidi told Reuters; "My release is a miracle. I couldn't believe I was still alive."

On 14 December 2008, al-Zaidi threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a Baghdad press conference while shouting, "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog."

Al-Zaidi suffered injuries as he was taken into custody and some sources said that he was tortured during his initial detention.

There were calls throughout the Middle East to place the shoes in an Iraqi museum, but the shoes were later destroyed by U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

Al-Zaidi's shoeing inspired many similar incidents of political protest around the world.

Following the incident, Al-Zaidi was represented by the head of the Iraqi Bar Association at trial.

On 20 February 2009, al-Zaidi received a 90-minute trial by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq.

On 12 March 2009, he was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign head of state during an official visit.

On 7 April, the sentence was reduced from three years to one year.

He was released on 15 September 2009 for good behavior after spending nine months in jail.

After his release, Al-Zaidi was treated for injuries received in prison and later said he planned to "build orphanages, a children's hospital, and medical and orthopaedic centres offering free treatment and manned by Iraqi doctors and medical staff."

Muntadhar al-Zaidi was raised in Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq.

Ahmed Alaa, a close friend and colleague of al-Zaidi at al-Baghdadia television (barred in Iraq 2014), in a talk on Islam Online, refers to "One of [al-Zaidi's] best reports" "on Zahra, a young Iraqi school girl killed by the occupation forces while en route to school."

Alaa said al-Zaidi documented the tragedy in his reportage, complete with interviews with her family, neighbors and friends.

"This report earned him the respect of many Iraqis and won him many hearts in Iraq," he said.

Al-Zaidi once also turned down an offer to work for what he termed "a pro-occupation channel".

Friends said al-Zaidi had been "emotionally influenced" by the destruction that he had seen in his coverage of the US bombing of Sadr City.

On politics, al-Zaidi said "I’m Iraqi and I’m proud of my country."

Friends of al-Zaidi said that he utterly rejected the occupation and the civil clashes.

They said he believed the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement was a "legalization of the occupation."

Sami Ramadani, a political exile from Saddam's regime and a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University, wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian that al-Zaidi "reported for al-Baghdadia on the poor and downtrodden victims of the US war. He was first on the scene in Sadr City and wherever people suffered violence or severe deprivation. He not only followed US Apache helicopters' trails of death and destruction, but he was also among the first to report every 'sectarian' atrocity and the bombing of popular market places. He let the victims talk first".