Al Zaidi was jailed for his insulting behaviour, as his target, the then US president George Bush - who'd ordered the invasion of Iraq by US-led troops in 2003 - swiftly ducked to avoid the size-10 shoe-missiles.

On his release, al -Zaidi, who had one tooth missing, said he had been beaten several times after he was arrested, that he had been beaten with electric cables and iron bars, and that he had been subjected to simulated drowning.

The television reporter who was working for Cairo-based station, al-Baghdadya TV at the time of the incident, spoke in the TV station's offices when he was let out of jail on Tuesday.

He denied that he was a hero, but showed no sign of regretting his act.

"For me it was a good response; what I wanted to do in throwing my shoes in the face of the criminal Bush was to express my rejection of his lies and of the occupation of my country," Zaidi said.

The 30-year-old reporter said he wanted an apology from Iraqi president Nuri al Maliki.

"I am now free but my country is still captive. I feel humiliated to see my country suffer, my Baghdad burning, and my people killed."

Zaidi was initially sentenced to three years for assaulting a foreign head of state but his sentence was reduced to one year on appeal. He was let out early on good behaviour.

The leaders had been speaking at a joint press conference in Baghdad on what was Bush's farewell visit to Iraq prior to being succeeded in office by then president-elect Barack Obama.

Zaidi's boss has promised the previously little-known reporter a new home as a reward for loyalty and the publicity that his actions generated for the station.

Although the Iraqi journalist missed his target, his action inspired a rash of shoe-throwing hostility in different countries and for a range of controversial issues.  

A German student at Cambridge University threw a sports shoe at Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in protest over China's human rights record.

Students at Stockholm University threw shoes at Israel's ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan in February 2009, to demonstrate their anger at Israel's attacks on Gaza, and a Sikh journalist hurled a shoe at then Indian home affairs minister P Chidambaram in April after India's Central Bureau of Investigation cleared Congress leader Jagdish Tytler of his involvement in the anti-Sikh riots in 1984.