Salman Rushdie recounts 2022 stabbing at Hadi Matar terrorism trial

Salman Rushdie told a federal jury how Hadi Matar stabbed him on stage in 2022. The testimony sharpens the prosecution's bid to prove the attack was an act of terrorism.

In Short

• The attack left Rushdie blind in one eye and briefly ventilated
• Prosecutors linked the stabbing to the fatwa and alleged Hezbollah support
• Defence argued jurors lack hard proof of Matar's intent that day

Author Salman Rushdie on Thursday told a US federal court jury for a second time about the 2022 knife attack that nearly killed him, as he testified at the terrorism trial of Hadi Matar. Matar has pleaded not guilty in the case and was earlier convicted on a state-level attempted murder charge over the same attack.

Rushdie described the assault and the severe injuries he suffered when he was attacked on stage at a cultural institution where he was due to speak about threats to writers and artists. Federal prosecutors say the attack was linked to a long-standing threat against Rushdie after a 1989 call by an Iranian leader for his death over his novel "The Satanic Verses".

Rushdie, 79, told the court he first felt what seemed like a punch under his chin and then realised blood was coming from his neck. "Soon I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me," he said. "It was an enormous and expansive lake of blood." At one point, he removed his glasses to show jurors his sightless right eye. He also said, "I can't say what his ambitions or his aim were, but the wounds were dispersed across my body."

He said the attacker came up from behind him on stage and slashed him 15 times as the audience reacted in shock. Another speaker, Henry Reese, and members of the audience rushed to help and restrain Matar before law enforcement officers assigned to the event arrested him. Rushdie told the jury about the lasting effects of the attack, which blinded him in his right eye, damaged his liver, paralysed his left hand for a time and briefly left him on a ventilator. "The knife was a millimetre from my brain," he said.

During the testimony, Matar, 28, mostly looked down at the defence table, at times resting his hand on his chin or speaking to his lawyer. Rushdie barely looked at him. Defence lawyer Nathaniel Barone asked Rushdie whether he believed Matar had ties to terrorism. Rushdie replied, "I had no knowledge, but I had my suspicions."

The defence has argued that prosecutors cannot prove Matar's intent or state of mind at the time of the attack, which is central to the federal claim that it was an act of terrorism motivated by allegiance to Iran's government and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group. Matar, who is serving a 25-year state prison sentence, could face life in prison if convicted on the federal charges, which include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism.

Barone repeatedly asked Rushdie whether he had expected backlash over "The Satanic Verses", the book that led to years of threats and forced him into hiding after Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death. Rushdie said he had later resumed public life without incident. "For two decades or more, I led a public life without a hint of trouble," he testified. When pressed again on whether he had anticipated blowback from the book, Rushdie said, "Probably, but I don't believe the book to be on trial here. I believe someone else is on trial." At Barone's request, the judge struck that remark from the court transcript.

Prosecutors have said Matar was influenced in part by comments made in 2006 by former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah about Rushdie and the fatwa. Assistant US Attorney Timothy Lynch said in his opening statement on Wednesday that Matar began researching Rushdie in 2020 and later wrote to himself, "We need to kill him ASAP." Lynch said Matar saw the killing as part of what he considered a jihad, or holy war. Prosecutors also said material recovered from Matar's New Jersey bedroom and electronic devices showed support for Hezbollah, and that he was carrying a fake driving licence with a name similar to that of a Hezbollah figure. The US government designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

The defence has said the government is asking jurors "to connect the dots" without hard evidence of what Matar was thinking on the day of the attack. In line with that argument, the defence has questioned witnesses about the relatively light security at the event, where a state trooper and a sheriff's deputy had been assigned. Barone said outside court on Thursday that Matar, who did not testify at his state trial, may testify in the federal case.

Rushdie, who was born in India, raised in Britain and is now a US citizen, is the Booker Prize-winning author of "Midnight's Children". His court appearance on Thursday revisited the details of the 2022 attack, the injuries he continues to live with and the wider case over whether the stabbing amounted to an act of terrorism.

With PTI Inputs

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