..that shoe-throwing bloke?

One in an occasional series about people who have had their 15 minutes of fame and faded from sight to linger only as an annoying tie-break question in the pub quiz.

Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi (there, you remember his name now) was jailed after hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush on Dec 14th 2008. He will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behaviour, his lawyer said Saturday. Defence shark lawyer Karim al-Shujairi said al-Zeidi will now be released on Sept. 14, three months early.

It was Bush’s last visit to Iraq as president and turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world amid anger over the 2003 invasion. He was initially sentenced to three years after pleading not guilty to assaulting a foreign leader (is that really a specific crime? What about assaulting a traffic warden? Equal, worse or better?), then the court reduced it to one year because the journalist had no prior criminal history.

The bizarre act of defiance transformed the obscure reporter from a minor TV station into a national hero to many Iraqis fed up with the nearly six-year U.S. presence. It also drew worldwide attention and became a rallying cry throughout the Muslim world for critics who resented the U.S. invasion and occupation.

The incident also embarrassed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was standing next to Bush at the time. Bush was forced to duck for cover as the journalist shouted in Arabic: “This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”

…so there we go, that’s what happened afterwards.