BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moved Monday to undermine the popularity of the Iraqi who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, saying the journalist confessed that the mastermind of the attack was a militant known for slitting his victims’ throats.
Al-Maliki said that in a letter of apology to him, Muntadar al-Zeidi wrote that a known militant had induced him to throw the shoes.
“He revealed . . . that a person provoked him to commit this act, and that person is known to us for slitting throats,” al-Maliki said on his website. The alleged instigator was not named and neither al-Maliki nor any of his officials would elaborate.
The journalist’s family denied the claim and said al-Zeidi was coerced into writing the letter, which is said to have requested a pardon for “the big and ugly act that I perpetrated.”
Al-Zeidi’s brother, Dhargham, said that it was “unfair” of al-Maliki to make the allegation about the throat-slitter and described the prime minister as “a sectarian man who is destroying the Iraqi people.”
Earlier, another brother said he met the journalist in prison and that he had expressed no regret for throwing the shoes.
Al-Zeidi’s trial on charges of assaulting a foreign leader is scheduled to begin Dec. 31. A conviction would carry a sentence of up to two years in prison. The judge, Dhia al-Kinani, said last week that he does not have the legal option to drop the case and that al-Zeidi can receive a pardon only if he is convicted.
Also Monday, the Ministry of the Interior released a statement detailing charges against its officials detained last week in a security crackdown.
The officials were under suspicion of making fake badges and identification cards, the statement said, that provided access to the Interior Ministry building, which the statement described as a target of terrorist attack.
At first the investigation was an internal matter overseen by the Interior Minister, but al-Maliki expanded the investigation beyond the ministry and created a committee that included a judge.
The statement said the judge dismissed the charges and ordered the detainees released, but gave no further explanation. The status of the detainees, said by the ministry to number 24, remains unclear, though a ministry official said on Monday that they were still in custody.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
