The News
British-American author Salman Rushdie took the stand Tuesday to testify against the man accused of attacking him with a knife at a 2022 literary event in New York.
Hadi Matar is charged with attempted murder and assault, allegedly stabbing Rushdie more than a dozen times in an attack that left the writer blind in one eye. Matar has pleaded not guilty.
“I was screaming because of the pain,” Rushdie recounted for the court, adding that he believed he was going to die.
Matar has been separately charged with providing support to the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, which the US considers a terrorist organization. Semafor’s Jay Solomon was the first to report the investigation into Matar’s potential ties to the group.
Rushdie has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which some religious leaders considered blasphemous; a year after its release, Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his assassination.