BAGHDAD: The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former President George W Bush was released today after nine months in prison, and he said Iraqi security forces tortured him with beatings, whippings and electric shocks after his arrest.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, whose stunning act of protest last December made him a hero around the Arab and Muslim worlds, said he now feared for his life and believed that US intelligence agents would chase after him.

"These fearful services, the US intelligence services and its affiliated services, will spare no efforts to track me as an insurgent revolutionary ... in a bid to kill me," he said.

"And here I want to warn all my relatives and people close to me that these services will use all means to trap and try to kill and liquidate me either physically, socially or professionally," he said. The 30-year-old reporter's act of protest deeply embarrassed Iraq's PM Nouri al-Maliki, who was standing beside Bush at a December 14 news conference when al-Zeidi suddenly shot up from his chair had hurled his shoes toward the podium. Bush, who was on his final visit to Iraq as American president, was unhurt but had to duck twice to avoid being hit.

Al-Zeidi was wrestled to the ground by journalists and al-Maliki's security men. The reporter said today that he was abused immediately after his arrest and the following day.