Trial to start a man accused of Salman Rushdie’s sting

A trial to a man who allegedly killed the famous British Indian author Salman Rushdie several times in 2022, leaving him blind in one eye, begins on Monday at UPSTATE New York.

Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old New Jersey man, is facing accusations of attempted murder and attack. He declared that he was not guilty.

The attack, which was shot in the video, happened at the Historical Chautauqua Institute in northwestern New York, where Mr. Rushdie was supposed to give a lecture.

The trial will decide the jury at the nearby Mayville, which will be heard from several witnesses, including Mr. Rushdie himself.

Mr. Rushdie, 77, was supposed to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institute in August 2022, where he would talk about how they are now a refuge for exiled writers.

In this lecture, the man, who the prosecutors claim that Mr Matar, ran on stage and attacked Mr. Rushdie and the survey.

Mr Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and in the belly, the authorities said. And he suffered liver damage.

The interlocutor who was with Mr. Rushdie, Henry Reese, suffered a minor injury to the head and was transported to a local hospital. In the meantime, Mr. Rushdie was transferred to a hospital in Erie in Pennsylvania, where he was undergoing surgery and put on a fan.

The incident was witnessed by many lectures. The video posted on the net shows the moment when people overthrew the stage immediately after the attack, and the police said the doctor in the audience gave first aid of Mr. Rushdie.

Police arrested Mr. Matar, who was 24 at the time of the incident shortly after.

For many years, Mr. Rushdie was the target of threats to his life after publishing his novel The Satanic verses in 1988.

The surrealist, postmodern novel was inspired by the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. This caused anger among some Muslims, who considered its content blasphemous, and is banned in some countries.

Threats forced Mr. Rushdie to hide for nine years, and he often traveled with security details in fear for his life.

But in recent years, the 77-year-old author said he believed that threats against him had reduced him. Two weeks before the attack, he told a German magazine that he thought his life was “relatively normal.”

Mr. Matar, a suspect in the case, is from Fairview, New Jersey. He was born in the US to parents who emigrated from Lebanon.

At the time of his arrest, police said they had no motive for an alleged attack.

The suspect later gave an interview from a prison in the New York Post, praised by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian supreme leader, who issued a Fatwa – or a decree – calling for the execution of Mr. Rushdie after publishing Satan’s lyrics.

He did not say whether Fatwa was influenced by his alleged actions.

Mr. Matar told the publication that he had only read a few pages of the novel. He added that he was inspired to go to Chautauqua after seeing Tweet announcing that Mr. Rushdie would visit.

“I don’t think it’s a good person,” Mr. Matar said. “He is someone who attacked Islam.”

Separate from Chautauqua District, Mr. Matar accused the Federal Court of providing material support for a militant group based in Lebanon Hezbollah, the indictment was released last July.

Hezbollah was proclaimed a terrorist organization of Western states, Israel, bay of Arab countries and the Arab league.

Mr. Matar declared that he was not guilty of Chautauqua’s district. At one point, his legal team unsuccessfully tried to transfer trial to another county, claiming that he risked an unjust trial due to a lack of Arabian-American community and publicity over a high profile case.

He remains in custody at Chautauqua County Prison. If he is also guilty of trying to kill and attack, he is facing a maximum of 32 years behind bars.

In the Islamic world, many Muslims responded with anger to the publication of a book and a death threat against Mr. Rushdie.

He was forced to hide, and the British government put him under police protection. Iran quickly interrupted relations with the UK in protest.

One year after the release of Satanic verses, Ayatollah Khomeini called for Mr. Rushdie’s execution. He offered an award of $ 3 million (£ 2.4 million) to Fatwa, which is a legal decree issued by an Islamic religious leader.

Dozens of people died in protests for the novel, while others – including the Japanese book translator – were killed after Fatwe.

The murder of Mr. Rushdie’s head remains active, and although the Iranian government has been distanced from Khomeini’s decree, the quasi-official Iranian Religious Foundation added further $ 500,000 awards in 2012.

After the attack, Iran “categorically” denied any connection with the alleged perpetrator. Some Iranian media praised the attack and described Mr. Rushdie as an apostate – someone who left or denied his faith – in their reporting.

Mr Rushdie spent six weeks at the hospital after the attack. He survived, but injuries resulted in liver damage, lost vision in one eye and a paralyzed hand caused by nerve damage on his arm.

Since then, he has published a memoir about an attack called Knifa.

The author should testify in the trial. Earlier, he told BBC Newshour that he was not sure if he wanted to face an alleged attacker in court.

“There is one part of me who actually wants to go and stand on the field and look at him and there is another part of me that simply cannot bother,” he said.

In his memoir, Mr. Rushdie thought about what he would tell his alleged attacker.

“I discover that I have very little to say,” he wrote. “Our lives touched each other and then separated. My improved from that day while yours got worse. You made a bad cube and lost yourself.”