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The attacker, Hadi Matar, appeared for his first day of trial and pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault at the Chautauqua County Courthouse.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF FEBRUARY 12, 2025 11:05
Defendant Hadi Matar arrives for his trial on charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault dating to an attack on Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, at Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, US February 11, 2025
(photo credit: REUTERS/Robert Frank)
The 26-year-old accused attacker of author Salman Rushdie said "free Palestine" when being escorted past reporters in a courtroom on Monday.
The attacker, Hadi Matar, appeared for his first day of trial and pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault at the Chautauqua County Courthouse.
Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York in August 2022, his agent said.
Indian-born author Rushdie, who spent years in hiding after Iran urged Muslims to kill him over his novel The Satanic Verses, was stabbed in the neck and torso on stage at a lecture in August 2022. After hours of surgery, Rushdie was on a ventilator and unable to speak for a while.
Andrew Wylie, who represents authors such as Saul Bellow and Roberto Bolano, described the extent of the injuries Rushdie suffered in the "brutal" attack in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais.
Wylie described the author's wounds as "profound" and noted the loss of sight in one eye. "He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso."
The agent declined to say whether The Satanic Verses author, 77, was still in the hospital more than two months after police said a 26-year-old New Jersey man stabbed the writer in the neck and torso just before Rushdie was to give a lecture at Chautauqua Institution, a retreat about 12 miles (19 km) from Lake Erie.
The novelist was rushed to the hospital after sustaining severe injuries in the attack, including nerve damage in his arm, wounds to his liver, and the likely loss of an eye, Wylie said at the time.
Matar charged with attempted murder and assault
"The individual responsible for the attack yesterday, Hadi Mattar, has now been formally charged with Attempted Murder in the Second Degree and Assault in the Second Degree," Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said in a statement in 2022.
"He was arraigned on these charges last night and remanded without bail," the statement added.
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The suspect was sympathetic to Shi'ite extremism and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), NBC New York cited law enforcement sources as saying at the time.
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