UPDATE: Rushdie is talking again, attacker pleads not guilty
UPDATE
Renowned author Salman Rushdie appears to be recovering after being brutally attacked while giving a speech in New York City on Friday. The 75 year old was taken off a ventilator yesterday, and his agent confirmed that he was talking again.
Rushdie has three stab wounds to his neck, four to his stomach, a puncture wound to his right eye, a puncture wound to his chest, and a laceration on his right thigh, according to Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt. Schmidt added that Rushdie might lose his right eye.
Meanwhile, Rushdie’s attacker, 24 year old Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder in the second degree, among other charges, according to his attorney. He was refused bail and remanded to the Chautauqua County Jail. Matar will have his next court appearance next Friday.
Matar stabbed Rushdie when Rushdie was speaking at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat centre.
Matar was born in the US and grew up in Fairview, New Jersey. His parents, however, are from a village called Yaroun in southern Lebanon where flags of the Iran-backed Shia Islamic militant group Hezbollah can reportedly be seen in many areas. Hezbollah spokespeople did not respond to the Associated Press’s requests for comment.
People who knew Matar have told reporters that he was quiet and to himself. The owner of a boxing gym in New Jersey that Matar was a member of, Desmond Boyle, told CNN that Matar always looked “tremendously sad.”
“You know that look, that ‘it’s the worst day of your life’ look? He came in every day like that.”
Rushdie went into hiding for many years after publishing his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, after the Iranian government called upon Muslims to kill Rushdie. Iran claimed that the novel was “blasphemous.”
PREVIOUS UPDATE
Fearless writer Salman Rushdie has sustained some very serious injuries after a man stabbed him yesterday at a speech he gave in New York. The attacker stabbed the 75 year old wordsmith in his neck and torso. Rushdie is now on a ventilator at a hospital, and unable to speak. Rushdie’s agent says his liver is damaged, nerves in his arm are severed, and he is likely to lose one of his eyes.
Police have now identified the stabber as 24 year old Hadi Matar, a man from New Jersey. One audience member, Bradley Fisher, said…
“A man jumped up on the stage from I don’t know where and started what looked like beating him on the chest, repeated fist strokes into his chest and neck.”
NBC New York reports that there have been signs from Hadi’s social media that he sympathised with Iranian forces. NBC New York said a law enforcement person told them that a preliminary review of Matar’s social media accounts shows he is sympathetic to Shia extremism and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps causes. The outlet said there are no definitive links to the Iranian government, though.
Rushdie went into hiding for many years after publishing his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, after the Iranian government called upon Muslims to kill Rushdie. Iran claimed that the novel was “blasphemous.”
SOURCE: Daily Beast | Associated Press | CNN | NBC New York | Reuters | BBC
