Iraqi shoe-thrower al-Zaidi released

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who threw a pair of shoes at George Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, has been released from jail nine months after he attacked the former U.S. president. “Zaidi was given a conditional discharge by the Misdemeanors Court in al-Karkh,” the chief of the Lawyers’ Syndicate and a lawyer from the defense team, Diyaa al-Saadi, told Iraqi News. Zaidi, a correspondent for al-Baghdadiya Channel, was initially sentenced to three years for assaulting a foreign head of state but had his jail time reduced because of his “psychological state.” SS (P) 1