Trial of Salman Rushdie's knife-wielding attacker begins
The trial began on Monday of a man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie, the irreverent author menaced with a religious death warrant from Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The trial began on Monday of a man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie, the irreverent author menaced with a religious death warrant from Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old American whose parents are of Lebanese Shi'ite extraction, pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault.
Jurors in the Mayville, New York courtroom have heard the prosecutor's opening statements on how the knife attack at a 2022 New York lecture unfolded in a matter of seconds, leaving Rushdie blinded in one eye and fighting for his life in hospital.
Moments before 77-year-old Rushdie was stabbed on stage, a poet was introducing the book event on the topic of keeping writers safe from harm, Chautauqua District Attorney Jason Schmidt told the jury according to Reuters.
The defendant is accused of running on stage and stabbing Rushdie up to 10 times. The attack also damaged Rushdie’s liver and paralyzed one hand.
Matar’s defense team has questioned the neutrality of police officers’ testimony.
Lynn Schaffer, an assistant public defender here in Chautauqua County, opened her remarks by saying it was an honor to defend Matar and argued that the case and sequence of events is not straightforward, a BBC journalist attending the trial said.
Matar’s lead defense lawyer, Nathaniel Barone, was absent due to illness.
Who is Hadi Matar?
In July 2024, two years after the incident, an unsealed indictment charged the defendant with providing material support to Iran-backed Hezbollah, sometime between September 2022 and August 2022.
The indictment did not specify how Matar is linked to the group.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Matar's mother told the outlet that her son went on a month-long trip to the Middle East in 2018 and came back radicalized.
Rushdie was forced to spend about 10 years in hiding throughout the United Kingdom and United States for much of the 90s after Khomeini issued a fatwa or religious edict to kill the author.
Khomeini called on “the proud Muslim people of the world” to kill the author of “The Satanic Verses,” which centered on the life of the Prophet Mohammad.
The trial is expected to last up to 10 days, the Associated Press reported.
Rushdie who released a memoir after the attacked called Knife, is expected to take the stand and come face-to-face with his would-be murderer later in the trial.
