Muntadher al-Zaidi sentenced to 3 years in prison
Muntadher al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at then US President George Bush, in a gesture widely recognized as a traditional Iraqi insult, has been sentenced to three years in prison by an Iraqi court. (His chosen form of protest is so amusing to westerners that it inspired iFlinger, which you still cannot find at the iTunes App Store, and many apps on other platforms like it.)
Even the recently retired President Bush himself seems to have found the shoe-throwing incident amusing, and said so in this interview.
Some of the President's comments:
"It was amusing. I've seen a lot of weird things during my presidency.
This may rank as one of the weirdest."
"This happens. It's the sign of a free society."
"I thought it weird, I thought it was unusual to have a guy throw his
shoe at you. I'm not insulted. I don't hold it against the government.
I don't think the Iraqi press corps as a whole is terrible. The guy
wanted to get on tv, and he did."