MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Author Salman Rushdie took the stand in a New York courtroom Tuesday to testify against the man charged with stabbing him in a frenzied knife attack.
“I only saw him at the last minute.,” Rushdie said. “I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask. I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious to me.”
Hadi Matar, 27, is charged with attempted murder and assault for attacking Rushdie as he was preparing to give a speech in August 2022, stabbing him more than a dozen times. Matar has pleaded not guilty.
“I thought he was hitting me with his fist but I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes. He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing,” Rushdie testified.
The 77-year-old author was blinded in one eye in the attack and spent months recovering, a process he detailed in a memoir released last year. A speaker who was to appear with Rushdie also was wounded.
Jurors in the western New York trial heard opening statements Monday, followed by testimony from staffers at the arts institution where the attack took place.
Matar has been in custody since he was subdued by spectators after the attack. He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault.
The trial is projected to last up to two weeks. Jurors are expected to be shown video and photos from the day of the attack.
They are unlikely, however, to hear about a fatwa issued by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for Rushdie’s death, according to District Attorney Jason Schmidt.
Rushdie, the author of “Midnight’s Children” and “Victory City,” spent years in hiding after Khomeini announced the fatwa in 1989 following publication of the novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous
Schmidt has said discussing Matar’s motive will be unnecessary in the state trial, given the attack was seen by the live audience that was present to hear Rushdie speak.
“This is not a case of mistaken identity,” Schmidt said during his opening statements on Monday. “Mr. Matar is the person who attacked Mr. Rushdie without provocation.”
A public defender representing Matar, however, told jurors that the case is not as straightforward as prosecutors made it out to be.
“The elements of the crime are more than `something really bad happened’ — they’re more defined,” Lynn Schaffer said. “Something bad did happen, something very bad did happen, but the district attorney has to prove much more than that.”
In a separate indictment, federal authorities allege that Matar was driven to act by a terrorist organization’s 2006 endorsement of the fatwa. A later trial on federal terrorism charges will be scheduled in U.S. District Court in Buffalo.
Carolyn Thompson And Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
