Prosecutors in the stabbing case trial of New York-based author Salman Rushdie told jurors on Monday that he was “dangerously close” to death after the brutal attack, which left him blind in one eye.
The accused, Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old Lebanese-American who exclaimed “free Palestine” upon entering court, faces charges of attempted murder and assault for the incident on August 12, 2022, at a cultural event in western New York state, according to news agency AFP.
Prosecutor Jason Schmidt detailed how Matar allegedly stabbed 77-year-old Salman Rushdie approximately 10 times, leaving him in critical condition and permanently blind in his right eye.
Schmidt stated that Matar came “dangerously close” to killing Rushdie, describing how the attack was so forceful that the knife severed the author’s optical nerve. Another speaker at the event was also wounded in the assault.
During the trial, District Attorney Jason Schmidt recounted how Rushdie, who has faced death threats since publishing, of “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, had just taken his seat before an audience of nearly 1,000 people.
“Plunged knife into Rushdie over and over again’
Schmidt detailed the assault: “A young medium-build man wearing a dark colored facemask… appeared from the rear of the theater. Once on the stage, he rapidly accelerated into a full-out run.”
“(Matar) forcefully and efficiently and with speed plunged the knife into Rushdie over and over and over again… swinging, slashing into Rushdie’s head, neck, abdomen, upper thigh,” he added.
‘Attack after novel declared blasphemous’
“The Satanic Verses” sparked controversy when Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared it blasphemous and issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989, calling for Rushdie’s death by Muslims worldwide.
According to the FBI, Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group, supported the fatwa against Indian-born British and American author Salman Rushdie.
In a previous interview with the New York Post, Matar admitted to reading only two pages of Rushdie’s novel but claimed he believed the author had “attacked Islam.”
‘Chaotic scene of blood, and screaming’
Venue staff member Deborah Moore Kushmaul testified about securing the discarded knife with its six-inch blade and described the chaotic scene of blood, screaming elderly audience members, and concerns about potential additional threats.
“I could see blood, I could see (bystanders) piling on. Our audience, many of whom were elderly, were screaming,” she said.
“My main concern was seeing all the bags that there might be a bomb, that there might be another attacker,” she added. Rushdie sustained multiple stab wounds before bystanders managed to subdue his attacker, later identified by police as Hadi Matar. He also suffered a partial laceration to his Adam’s apple, along with deep wounds that penetrated his liver and small bowel.
“His blood pressure was low — he lost so much blood,” the prosecutor added.
‘Why didn’t I fight? Why didn’t I run?’
Defence counsel Lynn Schaffer, amongst Matar’s legal representatives, delivered an opening statement interspersed with Super Bowl allusions and intermittent coughing, suggesting that the prosecution would present the matter as “straightforward — open and shut.”
She questioned the police investigation’s objectivity, stating, “Pay attention to the assumptions that the police witnesses make… how does that color the way they investigate this case?”
“They assume things about Matar that affect the way they investigate,” she added.
Following the fatwa, Rushdie spent ten years in isolation in London, but had been living a relatively normal existence in New York for two decades until the incident.
He documented his near-fatal experience in his 2023 memoir titled “Knife”. “Why didn’t I fight? Why didn’t I run? I just stood there,” Rushdie wrote.
Whilst Iran has dismissed any connection to the assailant, they maintained that Rushdie alone was responsible for the incident. Proceedings on the matter to resume Tuesday.