The man accused of stabbing renowned British-Indian author Sir Salman Rushdie in 2022 has gone on trial in upstate New York.
On Monday, prosecutors outlined their case against Hadi Matar – a 27-year-old man from New Jersey accused of attacking Mr Rushdie – and multiple witnesses detailed the chaos that ensued after the stabbing.
The attack left the author with devastating injuries, including the loss of his sight in one eye and a severely damaged hand.
Mr Matar has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney warned the jury that prosecutors must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt in order to convict him.
Mr Matar is charged with attempted murder and assault and could face more than 30 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors alleged that the suspect plunged a knife into the author “without hesitation”, nearly killing Mr Rushdie. They also said Mr Rushdie was attacked from behind so suddenly he had no idea what was happening.
Mr Rushdie worried about his safety since he published hte surrealist, post-modern novel The Satanic Verses, which was inspired by the life of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
While it was met with acclaim and awards in the Western world, many Muslims considered it blasphemous and some countries even banned it. Iran’s religious leader soon issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death due to its contents.
That fatwa – a religious ruling concerning Islamic law – caused Rushdie to face countless death threats. He had to go into hiding for nine years and only began travelling again when Iran said it would not enforce the law.
Two weeks before the attack, the 77-year-old author had told a German magazine that he was living a “relatively normal” life now that the threats had diminished.
But the attack on Mr Rushdie in Chautauqua, New York, in August 2022 shattered that feeling of safety.
Jordan Steves, an employee of the Chautauqua Institute where Mr Rushdie was speaking when he was attacked, testified that he was watching a monitor backstage when an assailant suddenly rushed the author.
Mr Steves said that the person he saw was “slender”, but it was “tough to tell size or height” because they were “wearing all dark clothing”.
Nevertheless, he identified Mr Matar as the assailant.
Recalling the attack, Mr Steves described how he rushed from backstage to help the author after the attack. “There was a lot of blood,” he said.
The prosecution began to build a picture of a chaotic few seconds in which the vicious attack occurred. They described how the suspect allegedly approached the defenceless Rushdie from behind and stabbed him over and over again.
“I could see that our audience, many of whom are elderly, were screaming,” said another witness, Deborah Sunya Moore. “Many were rushing to the stage, many were starting to move away.”
Meanwhile, the defence have aimed to scrutinise and undermine the witnesses’ testimony. In their opening, Mr Matar’s lawyer, Lynn Schaffer, suggested police officers due to testify later lacked “neutrality”.
Ms Schaffer, an assistant public defender, told the jury that the lead prosecutor would want them to believe that this case was straightforward, because investigators believed that because it was “on video” that there was “nothing to see here, it’s already done”.
“Don’t believe him,” the defence lawyer said. “Nothing is that simple in life.”
Ms Schaffer spoke on behalf of Matar’s lawyer Nathaniel Barone, who is in hospital due to an illness.
The trial is set to last as many ten days and Mr Rushdie is expected to testify.
