An Iraqi reporter who shot to worldwide fame when he hurled his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush was released from prison on Tuesday, accusing the Iraqi guards who seized him of beating and electrocuting him.

Muntazer al-Zaidi, whose outburst during a news conference last December summed up the feelings of many Iraqis towards the former U.S. leader, was met outside the jail by parliamentarians who support him, brother Uday al-Zaidi said.

Zaidi was sentenced to three years in jail for assaulting a head of state, but his sentence was later reduced to one year.

"Today I am free again but my home is still a prison," he told reporters shortly after his release, a swipe at the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq six and half years after the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.