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.
READ MORE: Canada’s future role in Iraq being mulled after liberation from ISIS
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.
Get daily National news
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.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhr-yXZg1cd/?utm_source=ig_embed
_848x480_1397405763961.jpg?h=360&w=540&crop=1&quality=70&strip=all)
Comments