Journalist Salman Rushdie described the moment when the attacker broke on stage with a knife and tried to kill him in a furious attack that left him blind in one eye.
The author of the Satanic verses on Tuesday said to jurors on Trial to his alleged attacker23-year-old American-Libanon hadadi Matar, that Matar “stabbed and pierced” into it.
“I was aware that this person rushed to me on the right,” he said, recounting that he would soon be spoken at an artistic event in New York in August 2022.
“I only saw him at the last moment.”
“There was a stab wound in my eyes, intensely painful, after that I screamed for pain,” Rushdie said, adding that he remained in the “blood lake”.
He said that “it occurred to me to die” before being drawn from the Cultural Center and helicopters to the Trauma Hospital.
Rushdie nodded on Tuesday and waved to his wife Rachel Eliza Griffiths, who was in court for testimony of his husband on the second day of the trial.
Matar’s legal team sought to prevent witnesses from characterizing Rushdie as a victim of persecution after Iranian 1989. Fatwe issuing his murder for alleged blasphemy in Satanic verses.
The Matar has been charged with a rushdie stab about 10 times with a 6-inch (15 cm) blade.
As he did on the day of the trial, Matar said, “Palestine will be free,” because they took him to court on Tuesday. He did not respond as Rushdie began his evidence, bites his nails during testimony.
Rushdie, who wore characteristic polarized glasses in one lie to mask the damaged eye, described his treatment and current health.
“The injuries were very serious and took a long time to recover … Gash [in my neck] He was so deep, he had to stick with metal staples, “he said.
Matar had previously told the media that he had only read two pages of Satanic verses, but believed that the author had “attacked Islam”.
The British-American Rushdie based in New York, now 77, was saved by passers-by.
Jordan Steves employee told the court on Monday that he was “starting” with his right shoulder as much as possible as much as possible as much as I could manage “to help others take away the attacker.
He pointed to Matar, just sitting his legs in a decorated courtroom when he asked to identify the attacker.
Steves’ colleague Deborah Moore Kushmaul said she had taken a discarded knife and gave it to the police.
The Optic nerve of Rushdie’s right eye was interrupted, and he told the court that “it was decided that the eye would close to allow moisturizing. It was a pretty painful surgery – which I don’t recommend. “
Asked to describe the intensity of pain for the attack, he said it was “10” out of 10.
Its Adam’s apple is also partially separated and the liver and small intestine penetrated.
“The first thing I said in the return of speech ability was:” I can speak, “he said he had stifled the laughter of the jurors.
“How to squeeze a toothpaste on a toothbrush only with one hand?” He explained when asked about injuries to his hands received while trying to defend himself.
Rushdie lived in London in London a decade after Fatwe in 1989, but for the last 20 years – until the attack – he lived relatively normal in New York.
It became the center of a fierce tug between the advocate of free speech and those who insisted that the insult of religion, especially Islam, was unacceptable in any circumstances.
Last year, he published a memoir, called Knife, in which he recounted the experience of almost death.
One of Matar’s lawyers, Lynn Schaffer, said on Monday that prosecutors would endeavor to present the case “open and closed” – but warned that police had made assumptions about Matar.
The accused allegedly withdrew and stubborn in their appearance after a trip to the Middle East in 2018.
The Lebanese armed organization supported by Iran Hezbollah approved Fatwa, said the FBI, and Matar faces a separate persecution of the Federal Court for charges of terrorism.
Iran denied any connection with the attacker and only said that Rushdie was guilty of the incident.
