MAYVILLE, N.Y. In front of a lecture audience in western New York, attorneys started making opening remarks Monday at the trial of the man accused of attempting to stab author Salman Rushdie to death.
Rushdie, 77, is anticipated to testify at Hadi Matar’s trial, bringing the author and his knife-wielding assailant together for the first time in over two years.
In August 2022, Matar sprinted toward Rushdie, the Booker Prize-winning author, as he was ready to talk on the platform at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater about protecting writers from harm. He was partially blind and had irreversible damage to one hand after Matar stabbed him over a dozen times in the neck, stomach, chest, hand, and right eye.
In his memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, published last year, the British-American novelist, who was born in India, described the attack and his protracted, grueling recuperation.
Since many Muslims condemned Rushdie’s 1989 book The Satanic Verses as heretical and Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa demanding his execution, Rushdie had been concerned for his safety. After Iran declared it would not implement the decree, Rushdie, who had been in hiding for years, was able to travel freely for the past 25 years.
As the 36th anniversary of the fatwa, which was issued on February 14, 1989, draws near, the trial is underway.
Matar, 27, of Fairview, New Jersey, is accused with assault and attempted murder. He entered a not guilty plea. They chose a jury last week. During the three-day proceedings, Matar was present in court, taking notes and speaking with his lawyers.
He calmly declared, “Free Palestine,” as he was escorted into court on Monday by media representatives who were filming and taking pictures.
When it was revealed that Matar’s attorney, Nathaniel Barone, was hospitalized with an undisclosed illness and would not be present at the trial’s commencement, his defense got off to a difficult start. A defense plea to postpone opening statements was denied by Judge David Foley, who instead directed one of Barone’s associates to make the opening statement on his behalf.
The trial is anticipated to run between seven and ten days after testimony begins. Video and images from the day of the attack, when bystanders hurried Matar and detained him until police arrived, will be displayed to jurors. Henry Reese, a co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, who moderated the event, was also hurt.
Matar told investigators he went to Chautauqua, which is roughly 75 miles south of Buffalo, by bus. It is thought that the night before the attack, he slept in the grounds of the academic and artistic retreat.
The nature of Matar’s defense has not been disclosed by his lawyer.
Federal authorities claim in a second accusation that Matar was inspired by a terrorist group endorsing a fatwa, or decree, that demanded Rushdie’s murder. The U.S. District Court in Buffalo will hold a subsequent trial on the federal accusations of terrorism transcending national boundaries, giving material assistance to terrorists, and attempting to give material support to a terrorist organization.
Since the 1981 release of Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize, Rushdie has become one of the most renowned writers in the world. His other writings include the 2012 book Joseph Anton, which details his time spent in hiding, and the novels Shame and Victory City, which he finished just before the stabbing in 2022.
According to the federal indictment, officials claim that Matar thought the decree was supported by the militant organization Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, and that Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s then-leader, had approved it in a 2006 speech.
The Associated Press
