The Islamist charged with stabbing Salman Rushdie has been given hours to decide whether to delay his trial by demanding a copy of the author’s forthcoming book about the attack that nearly killed him.
Hadi Matar was seized from the stage at a book fair in upstate New York after the Satanic Verses author was repeatedly stabbed in August of 2022.
Matar, 26, was due to stand trial early this month for the attack which left Rushdie on a ventilator and cost him an eye, with jury selection starting on January 8.
But Chautauqua County Judge David Foley ruled Matar was entitled to see a copy of the memoir ‘Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder’ even though it is not due out until April 16.
‘It’s not just the book,’ defense attorney Nathaniel Barone said, ‘Every little note Rushdie wrote down, I get, I’m entitled to.
Author Salman Rushdie has described his 256-page memoir as ‘a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art’ after the attack in August 2022
Hadi Matar, 26, who was born in California to Lebanese parents, has been held without bail at the Chautauqua County Jail since his arrest at the Chautauqua Institution
Stewards and onlookers scrambled to help the badly injured Rushdie as Matar was dragged from the stage in the seconds after the attack
‘Every discussion, every recording, anything he did in regard to this book.’
Rushdie has described the 256-page memoir as ‘a way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art’.
The 76-year-old writer was flown to hospital with 15 wounds in his chest and torso and three wounds to his neck, after the attack at the Chautauqua Institution.
He suffered a damaged liver, severed nerves in his arm and the loss of his right eye after his attacker stormed the stage.
Rushdie’s account of the attack is due to be published by Penguin Random House in April
”Knife’ is a searing book and a reminder of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable,’ said his publisher Nihar Malaviya.
‘We are honored to publish it, and amazed at Salman´s determination to tell his story and to return to the work he loves.’
Matar, who was born in California to Lebanese parents, was dragged off the stage by stewards and has been held without bail at the Chautauqua County Jail since.
The author lived in isolation with round-the-clock security or years after his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses prompted Iran’s theocratic regime to place a ‘fatwa’ contract on his life.
Matar was found with a false driving license in the name of two Hezbollah commanders when he was seized after the attack on Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution.
His mother Silvana Fardos told Dailymail.com that her son changed from a popular, loving son to a moody religious zealot after visiting her ex-husband in the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese town of Yaroun, a mile from the Israeli border.
‘I was expecting him to come back motivated, to complete school, to get his degree and a job,’ she said.
‘But instead he locked himself in the basement. He had changed a lot, he didn’t say anything to me or his sisters for months.’
Matar denied acting on orders when arrested for the near-fatal attack on Rusdhie, 76, who lost an eye and the use of a hand.
‘I don’t like the person. I don’t think he’s a very good person,’ he told interviewers.
‘He’s someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.’
District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Rushdie’s representatives had declined the prosecutor’s request for a copy of the manuscript, citing intellectual property rights.
But he downplayed the relevance of the book at the upcoming trial, given that the attack was witnessed by a large, live audience and Rushdie himself could testify.
Judge Foley gave Matar and his attorney until a pre-trial conference at 9.30am on Wednesday to decide if they want to delay the trial until they have the book in hand, either in advance from the publisher or once it has been published.
Barone said after court that he favored a delay but would consult with Matar.
Matar pictured in court six days after the attack with his defense attorney Nathaniel Barone
Medics attempted to compress Rushdie’s wounds after he was stabbed more than 18 times
Rushdie was airlifted to the hospital where he was put on a ventilator after the attack on August 12 last year, spending six weeks in care before being discharged
Hadi Matar, 25, returned from four weeks in Lebanon as a religious bigot his mother told Dailymail.com
Matar’s Lebanese-born mother Silvana Fardos moved with her three children from California to a home in New Jersey (above) following her split with his father
Rushdie told The New Yorker that he had worked hard to avoid ‘recrimination and bitterness’ and was determined to ‘look forward and not backwards’ in his first interview after the attack.
‘This doesn´t feel third-person-ish to me. I think when somebody sticks a knife into you, that´s a first-person story. That is an ‘I’ story,’ he said.
Tehran denied any role in attack on Rushdie, but added: ‘We don’t consider anyone deserving reproach, blame or even condemnation, except for [Rushdie] himself and his supporters.’
The author, who was made a Companion of Honour by the King in May last year, has blamed Matar alone for the attack on him and told the BBC he is not sure if he can ‘be bothered’ to face him in court when he comes to trial.