Mayville, Feb 10: Lawyers began delivering opening statements Monday at the trial of the man charged with trying to fatally stab author Salman Rushdie in front of a lecture audience in western New York.
Rushdie, 77, is expected to testify during the trial of Hadi Matar, bringing the writer face-to-face with his knife-wielding attacker for the first time in more than two years.
Rushdie, the Booker Prize-winning author, had been about to speak about keeping writers safe from harm in August 2022 when Matar ran toward him on the stage at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater.
Matar stabbed Rushdie more than a dozen times in the neck, stomach, chest, hand and right eye, leaving him partially blind and with permanent damage to one hand.
The Indian-born British-American author detailed the attack and his long, painful recovery in a memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” released last year.
Rushdie had worried for his safety since his 1989 novel “The Satanic Verses” was denounced as blasphemous by many Muslims and led to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issuing a fatwa calling for his death. Rushdie spent years in hiding, but had travelled freely over the past quarter century after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree.
The trial is taking place as the 36th anniversary of the fatwa – February 14, 1989 – approaches.
Matar, 27, of Fairview, New Jersey, is charged with attempted murder and assault. He has pleaded not guilty. A jury was selected last week. Matar was in court throughout the three-day process, taking notes and consulting with his attorneys.
He calmly said, “Free Palestine” while being led in to court Monday past members of the media taking photographs and video. (AP)
