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Saddam's lawyer offers to defend Iraqi journalist

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-16 07:57

AMMAN -- Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer, on Monday offered to defend the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at US President George W. Bush who came to Iraq on a farewell visit.

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The lawyer said in Jordan's capital of Amman that he made the decision on Sunday night soon after the incident and he now seeks to form a lawyer team to defend for the journalist.

The journalist should be released, stressed Dulaimi.

At a news conference Bush held on Sunday in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, reporter of Baghdadiya television, jumped and threw his two shoes one by one at Bush and called him a "dog" in Arabic.

Bush ducked and narrowly missed being struck, but the journalist was wrestled by several security members to the floor and then dragged out of the hall as he was screaming.

Bush arrived Baghdad earlier on Sunday in an unannounced visit, just 36 days before he leaves office in January.