BAGHDAD, Dec 16: An Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at US President George Bush appeared before a judge on Tuesday and admitted “aggression against a president”, a judicial spokesman said.

TV reporter Muntazer Al-Zaidi became an instant sensation in the Arab world when he called Mr Bush a “dog” at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki on Sunday and threw his shoes at him.

“Al-Zaidi was brought today before the investigating judge in the presence of a defence lawyer and a prosecutor,” said Abdul Satar Birqadr, spokesman for Iraq’s High Judicial Council.

“He admits the action he carried out.”

The court decided to keep Zaidi in custody and, after the judge has completed his investigation, it may send him for trial under a clause in the Iraqi penal code that makes it an offence to try to murder Iraqi or foreign presidents.

The sentence for such a crime could be up to 15 years jail, Birqadr said.

Zaidi’s brother said that the reporter was hit on the head with a rifle butt and had an arm broken in the chaos that broke out after he threw his shoes at Mr Bush and was leapt on by Iraqi security officers and US secret service agents.

Zaidi is in a hospital in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, his brother Maitham Al-Zaidi said.

“All that we know is we were contacted yesterday (Monday) by a person — we know him — and he told us that Muntazer was taken on Sunday to Ibn-Sina hospital,” Maitham al-Zaidi said.

“He was wounded in the head because he was hit by a rifle butt, and one of his arms was broken.”—Reuters