A man who threw his shoes at former U.S. president George W. Bush during a farewell visit to Iraq in 2008 is now running for a seat in the embattled country’s Council of Representatives.
Broadcaster Muntadhar al-Zaidi, 39, recently announced his campaign to run in the May 12 parliamentary elections and has even hinted at running for the presidency.
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He made the announcement in a video shared online and it comes nearly 10 years after his infamous footwear attack on Bush, which included a verbal assault on the former president.
“This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,” al-Zaidi yelled as he tossed the shoe before being pinned to the floor by security personnel. “You killed the Iraqis!”
Al-Zaidi was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail, but only served nine months before his release.
The journalist left Iraq and spent the better part of a decade in Lebanon, before returning two months ago to launch his campaign.
Al-Zaidi revealed to CNN in an interview that he may have aspirations of running for Iraq’s top office.
“If I become the prime minister of Iraq or the president then the first thing I will do is to ask the United States of America to officially apologize to all Iraqis, to compensate the victims and hold former president George W. Bush accountable.”
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