Shoe-Tosser Released, Says 'I Was Tortured'

The Iraqi reporter who was locked up for throwing his shoes at George W. Bush says he was tortured in prison, the BBC reports. He was released today after nine months in a Baghdad jail, Reuters notes, and says he plans to identify those officials who tortured him. Relatives say he’s still scared for his life. “Today I am free again but my home is still a prison,” Muntadar al-Zaidi told reporters.

The Iraqi government kept the release quiet, preventing family members from greeting al-Zaidi at the jail and instead taking him to his family’s home, the New York Times reports. Al-Zaidi has called for an apology from Iraq’s prime minister, saying beatings left him with broken bones and internal bleeding. Iraq’s military denies the claims.
(More Muntadhar al-Zeidi stories.)