BAGHDAD, Dec 22: A brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Monday slammed people around the world who are trying to exploit the incident for commercial gain.

“It’s all nonsense. These people want to exploit what my brother did,” Durgham al-Zaidi said of his brother Muntazer’s actions after being told a Turkish firm claimed it had manufactured the offending footwear.

“The Syrians claim the shoes were made in Syria and the Turks say they made them. Some say he bought them in Egypt. But as far as I know he bought them in Baghdad and they were made in Iraq,” he said.

Serkan Turk, head of sales at Baydan Shoes in Istanbul, said his firm made the shoes and that it had to take on 100 extra staff to cope with demand for Model 271, the black polyurethane-soled footwear now renamed Bush Shoes.

“Between the day of the incident and 1pm today we have received orders totalling 370,000 pairs,” Turk said. Normally the company sold only 15,000 pairs a year of that particular model, he added.

Zaidi, 29, achieved instant global fame eight days ago during a Baghdad joint news conference with Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, when he threw his shoes at the US president a grave insult in the Arab world. He is due to go on trial on Dec 31 charged with “aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit”, an offence that carries a prison term of between five and 15 years under Iraqi law.

His family has alleged he was tortured in custody, but the judge investigating the case denied the claims.—AFP