Author Salman Rushdie testifies at terrorism trial of man convicted of stabbing him

Author Salman Rushdie testifies at terrorism trial of man convicted of stabbing him

Salman Rushdie, the renowned author, took the stand on Thursday to testify at the federal trial of Hadi Matar, the 28-year-old Lebanese-American who stabbed him at a New York cultural center in 2022. Matar has already been sentenced to 25 years in prison by New York state's justice system for the attempted murder, but he is now facing terrorism charges before a federal court in Buffalo. Rushdie's testimony provided a detailed account of the assault, which saw Matar stab him about 10 times with a six-inch blade as Rushdie was about to address a free-speech conference at Chautauqua Institution. The author, who was born into a secular Muslim family and later came to identify as an atheist, recounted his upbringing in Mumbai and his move to the United Kingdom, where he attended the University of Cambridge. The prosecution alleges that Matar was motivated by a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, following Rushdie's depiction of a fictionalized Prophet Muhammad in his novel "The Satanic Verses." The fatwa, which called for Rushdie's death, drove him into hiding for years, but he gradually emerged after the Iranian government distanced itself from the order in 1998. Rushdie spoke in court for nearly an hour about the assault, which left him blind in one eye and with severe injuries to his torso, liver, and intestines. He described Matar as wearing a "black COVID mask" and dark clothing, and said he was initially unaware that Matar had a weapon. "I thought I had been punched very heavily and I thought he had broken my jaw," Rushdie said. The author also detailed his road to recovery, which included relying on a ventilator to assist with his breathing and spending days in a hospital bed before he could walk. He had to learn how to redo things that we all take for granted, he said, and had to come to terms with the fact that his right eye would never regain sight. Matar's defense lawyers argue that there is no evidence explicitly connecting him to Iran, Hezbollah, or any other terrorist organization. They claim that the prosecution is asking jurors to "connect the dots" in a case without hard evidence about what Matar was thinking on the date of the attack. However, federal prosecutors presented several exhibits recovered from Matar's New Jersey apartment, including materials from Hezbollah, a photograph of Samir Quntar, a Hezbollah commander, and handwritten "pros and cons" lists that appeared to concern plans to kill Rushdie. They also showed images of a fake New Jersey driver's license with a name similar to that of a Hezbollah figure, and a photograph of Matar wearing a yellow-and-green T-shirt bearing the Hezbollah logo. Rushdie's testimony was a key part of the prosecution's case, and his account of the assault and its aftermath provided a vivid picture of the events surrounding the stabbing. Matar faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted of the federal charges, which include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. The trial is expected to resume on Friday, with seven witnesses remaining to be called.