Muntazer al-Zaidi, 29, an Iraqi correspondent for the Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV channel, threw his shoes at George Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in mid-December and shouted in Arabic: "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, dog." Bush managed to duck in time to avoid the shoes.
Al-Zaidi's lawyers had requested that charges of "aggressive actions toward a foreign official," which carries a sentence of up to 15 years, be changed to "insulting a foreign official," which carries a lesser sentence of up to two years.
Al-Zaidi is to stand trial in Baghdad on February 19. He has been in prison awaiting trial since the attack on Bush.
A special committee, headed by the chair of the Iraq union of lawyers, Dhiyaa al-Saadi, has also been formed in Iraq to defend the journalist.
According to al-Saadi, the "defense is leaning toward proving that al-Zaidi was merely protesting against the occupiers and their policies, which in civil law is simply the freedom of expressing one's own opinion."
The journalist's actions have turned him into a national hero in many Arab countries, including Iraq.
