♠ Posted by Emmanuel in China
at 2/03/2009 06:29:00 PM
The student protester who hurled a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he was giving a speech at Cambridge University could face up to 6 months in prison or a £5,000 fine, the UK's Crown Prosecution Service told CNN Tuesday. The unidentified 27-year-old student has been charged with a "public order offense" and is expected to stand trial before a Cambridge Magistrates' Court on February 10, according to Cambridge police spokesman Emma Hardy.I guess the boy got off lightly instead of allegedly getting roughed up like the Iraqi fellow. Plus, he doesn't face a multiyear sentence in some gulag:
According to a university spokesman and a student newspaper reporter who witnessed the incident Monday, the student hurled the shoe in the general direction of Wen and shouted, "Why are you prostituting yourself? How can you listen to the lies he is telling?" [The Daily Telegraph more accurately says it's "How can this university prostitute itself with this dictator here?" Listen to the video clip above.] The shoe was thrown toward the end of the speech and missed hitting the Chinese premier, according to eyewitness accounts.
Monday's shoe-throwing incident echoed one in December, when an Iraqi journalist narrowly missed striking then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad. Lawyers for the Iraqi journalist, who is now detained, have asked the Iraqi Federal Court to change the case from assaulting Bush to insulting him. If convicted of the former, he would face a maximum of 15 years in prison, an Iraqi lawyer told CNN.Perhaps he can seek asylum in..let me think...Taiwan. Does Nike or Adidas get a bounce in sneaker sales in China-bashing America like the Turkish shoemaker did? Then again, the darned things were probably "Made in China." Before you log on to Charles Schwab and buy some sportswear maker stock, take note that the shoe manufacturer's identity isn't clear. The Sun has a photo of a shoe, but I cannot (a) see the logo as a thumb is obscuring it and (b) be certain that the tabloid didn't place a photo of any old shoe.
Any help in identifying the offending shoe is most welcome--if you can figure it out.
