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The author, 75, was the target of a ‘fatwa’ by Iranian religious leaders over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses
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The man accused of stabbing Sir Salman Rushdie pleaded not guilty on Saturday to charges of attempted murder and assault, as the renowned author of The Satanic Verses remained in hospital with serious injuries.
A lawyer for Hadi Matar, 24, entered the plea on his behalf during a formal hearing at a court in western New York.
Matar appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands cuffed in front of him.
A judge ordered him to be held without bail after district attorney Jason Schmidt told her Matar took steps to purposely put himself in a position to harm Sir Salman, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early with a fake ID.
“This was a targeted, unprovoked, pre-planned attack on Mr Rushdie,” Mr Schmidt said.
Sir Salman suffered serious injuries and is in hospital on a ventilator and may lose an eye, his agent has said.
Hadi Matar, who has been charged with the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie, is a “loner” who had been focusing on losing weight, according to one of his neighbours.
They told The Times: “We talked about working out and fitness and food - he wanted to lose weight because he was a bit overweight. Once he started working out he lost a lot of weight.
“We used to go boxing together but we didn’t do sparring, we did jumping, punching a bag, not the heavy stuff.
“I would say he was a loner and I didn’t see him with friends and I don’t think he socialised much. You could tell from how he was.”
The former step-father of Hadi Matar wept when he learned that the 24-year-old was under investigation for the attack on Salman Rushdie.
In New Jersey, Fouad Komayah told The Times: “Hadi? No! Hadi? Hadi? Hadi is a very good boy, he is smart, he has a good heart. He wouldn’t touch anybody.”
Salman Rushdie believed his life was “very normal again” just weeks before he was attacked on stage in New York.
The author told a journalist at German news magazine Stern that he would have been in a lot more danger if social media had been around when he wrote The Satanic Verses.
He said: “A fatwa is a serious thing. Luckily we didn’t have the internet back then. The Iranians had to send the fatwa to the mosques by fax. That’s all a long time ago. Nowadays my life is very normal again.”
He said he was no longer afraid of “religious fanaticism”. “The biggest danger facing us right now is that we lose our democracy,” he said.
“Since the supreme court abortion verdict I have been seriously concerned that the US won’t manage that. That the problems are irreparable and the country will break apart. Today’s greatest danger facing us is this kind of cryptofascism that we see in America and elsewhere.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Saturday that he “strongly” condemns the attack on writer Salman Rushdie.
“International rejection of such criminal actions, which violate fundamental rights and freedoms, is the only path towards a better and more peaceful world”, Borrell said in his tweet.
The man accused of stabbing Sir Salman Rushdie pleaded not guilty on Saturday to charges of attempted murder and assault, in what a prosecutor called a “pre-planned” crime, as the renowned author of The Satanic Verses remained in hospital with serious injuries.
A lawyer for Hadi Matar entered the plea on his behalf during a formal hearing at a court in western New York.
Matar appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands cuffed in front of him.
A judge ordered him to be held without bail after district attorney Jason Schmidt told her Matar took steps to purposely put himself in a position to harm Sir Salman, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early with a fake ID.
“This was a targeted, unprovoked, pre-planned attack on Mr Rushdie,” Mr Schmidt said.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone said the authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge, while leaving him “hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks”.
“He has that constitutional right of presumed innocence,” Mr Barone added.
Salman Rushdie’s injuries include three stab wounds to the right side of the front of his neck and a puncture wound to his right eye, Chautauqua’s county district attorney has said.
The author also has four stab wounds to his stomach, a puncture wound to his check, and a laceration on his right thigh, the attorney said.
The details of his injuries were provided during suspect Matar’s arraignment.
Read the latest news about the attack on Salman Rushdie here:
“This is the very early stage of what will invariably be a protracted legal process,” DA says
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that the attack on author Salman Rushdie is a strike on the freedom of expression.
“No one should be threatened or harmed on the basis of what they have written. I’m wishing him a speedy recovery,” Trudeau said in a tweet.
The suspect in the attack on ‘Satanic Verses’ author Salman Rushdie has entered a not-guilty plea in a New York court.
Hadi Matar, 24, has been charged with attempted murder and assault, prosecutors said on Saturday.
“This is the very early stage of what will invariably be a protracted legal process,” DA says
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Law enforcement officers detain Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, N.J., outside the Chautauqua Institution on Friday, 12 Aug 2022, in Chautauqua, NY.
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