BAGHDAD – The journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush was handed over to the Iraqi judiciary, an Iraqi official said Tuesday, a move that signals the start of criminal proceedings.

There were conflicting reports about the physical condition of Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who gained folk hero status when he hurled both his shoes at Bush during a news conference Sunday in Baghdad.

His employer, Al-Baghdadia television, reported that al-Zeidi had been "seriously injured" – presumably beaten by guards – and called on the government to allow lawyers and the Iraqi Red Crescent to visit him.

Later, one of his brothers said on Al-Baghdadia that he had spoken by telephone with al-Zeidi and that he told him "thank God, I am in good health.''

"I felt from his voice that he is good health," brother Maitham al-Zeidi said.

In Washington, deputy State Department spokesperson Robert Wood said: "Obviously, we condemn any kind of unnecessary force used against the reporter. I don't know that that happened but certainly if that did take place, we would condemn that."

After the Sunday incident, al-Zeidi was initially held by the prime minister's guards and later turned over to the Iraqi army's Baghdad command. The command, in turn, handed him over to the judiciary, the Iraqi official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't supposed to release the information.

The official would not elaborate, but referring the case to the judiciary usually signals the beginning of a lengthy process that could end in a criminal trial. Cases referred to the judiciary are given to a judge who reviews the evidence and recommends whether to hold a trial or release the defendant.

Another panel then sets a trial date and appoints judges to hear the case. The process can take months.

Earlier, Interior Ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said al-Zeidi could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister, who was standing next to Bush when the shoes were thrown. The offence carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.

Many Iraqis, however, believe al-Zeidi was a hero for insulting an American president widely blamed for the chaos that has engulfed their country since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

In Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, located north of Baghdad, an estimated 1,000 protesters carried banners and chanted slogans demanding al-Zeidi's release.

A couple of hundred more also protested Tuesday in Nasiriyah, a Shiite city southeast of Baghdad, and Fallujah, a Sunni area west of the capital.

In Baghdad, Noureddin al-Hiyali, a lawmaker of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, defended al-Zeidi's actions and said he believed the reporter was likely motivated by the invasion of Iraq, the "dismantling of the Iraqi government, destroying the infrastructure" – all events he blamed on the Bush administration.

"International law approves peoples' right to resist occupation using all means, and Mr. Muntadhar al-Zeidi endeavoured to resist occupation in his own manner," al-Hiyali said.

He urged the government to take that into consideration when deciding what to do with al-Zeidi.

The head of the Iraqi Union of Journalists described al-Zeidi's action as "strange and unprofessional" but urged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to give him clemency.

"Even if he has committed a mistake, the government and the judiciary are broad-minded and we hope they consider his release because he has a family and he is still young," Mouyyad al-Lami told AP Television News. "We hope this case ends before going to court.''

The head of Jordan's Bar Association, Saleh Armouti, said Tuesday that scores of lawyers have been signing up to help defend al-Zeidi. The association is dominated by hard line Muslims and leftists critical of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Wood, the deputy State Department spokesperson, described the incident as "one individual's views.''

"There are plenty of Iraqis that you can find who support what President Bush has done, our efforts to try to bring about democracy, a full functioning democracy in the heart of the Middle East, in Iraq," he said.

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The perception of al-Zeidi as a hero reflects Arab animosity toward Bush for the invasion and dissatisfaction with the president's handling of foreign policy matters in the Middle East.

That hostility has persisted even though violence has dropped by more than 80 per cent in Iraq since earlier this year when car bombings and gunfights throughout the country were rampant.

Nevertheless, Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops continue to be targeted by insurgents.

On Tuesday, three bombings in Baghdad and another in Diyala province killed four people and wounded at least 30.

Two police and two civilians were killed by a roadside bomb near Baghdad's Technical University and 13 other people were wounded, police said.

A car bomb near the city's Babylon Hotel wounded three people, including a security guard. The bomb went off as a convoy from the ministry of science went by, but the minister was not in the vehicles, police said.

Three police and three civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb directed at a police patrol near central Baghdad's Andalus Square, police said. Another roadside bomb against a police patrol near Saadiya in Diyala wounded five police and three other people, Diyala security officials said.

Also in Saadiya, a security official said three gunmen killed the imam of a local Sunni mosque on Monday evening.

The U.S. military said in a written statement that troops killed three suspected insurgents and detained three others in separate operations targeting Al Qaeda networks in northern Iraq.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military announced it had transferred the last 10 female detainees in its custody in Iraq to the authorities the day before.

A U.S. statement said the women have either been convicted of a security-related offence or are due to stand trial in the Central Criminal Court of Iraq.

The U.S. still holds about 15,500 detainees, down dramatically from the high of about 26,000 in November 2007.

The U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that goes into effect next month requires the U.S. to hand over detainees wanted by the Iraqis and release the rest.

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