Author Salman Rushdie may testify against the man accused of stabbing him before a lecture, when the defendant’s trial begins early next year, according to a prosecutor. Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt revealed this information after a court hearing where the trial was scheduled for January 8.
25-year-old Hadi Matar has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder. It is alleged that he rushed the stage where Rushdie, the author of “The Satanic Verses,” was about to speak in August 2022. Matar reportedly stabbed Rushdie multiple times before being stopped by onlookers.
Rushdie, who suffered injuries including blindness in one eye and damage to his hand, will release a memoir titled “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” on April 16th.
Matar has been in custody since the incident at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.
The main challenge for the trial will be selecting a fair and unbiased jury, according to Schmidt. He estimates that the trial will last two weeks or less.
Rushdie has been the target of a decades-old death threat, known as a fatwa, issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini due to alleged blasphemy in “The Satanic Verses.”
