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Jury selection underway for accused attacker of author Salman Rushdie

By Mike Heuer
Author Salman Rushdie arrives at the 2023 PEN America Literary Gala at American Museum of Natural History in New York City on May 18, 2023, and is expected to testify against accused attacker Hadi Matar during a pending New York criminal trial. File Photo by Peter Foley/UPI
Author Salman Rushdie arrives at the 2023 PEN America Literary Gala at American Museum of Natural History in New York City on May 18, 2023, and is expected to testify against accused attacker Hadi Matar during a pending New York criminal trial. File Photo by Peter Foley/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A jury is being seated for the New York trial of Hadi Matar, 27, who is accused of trying to kill author Salman Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022.

The trial is scheduled at the Chautauqua County Court in New York and likely will include Rushdie testifying against his alleged attacker.

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"There's one bit of me that actually wants to go and stand on the court and look at him," Rushdie told the BBC, "and there's another bit of me that just can't be bothered."

Rushdie lost his right eye in the attack and was paralyzed in one hand after suffering nerve damage in one arm.

He required the help of a ventilator to live and breathe for six weeks after he was attacked and stabbed while speaking to an audience during the event that was held at the Chautauqua Institute in Mayville, N.Y.

Event moderator Henry Reese also was wounded in the attack in western New York State.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said about 15 witnesses will testify against Matar.

"What happened was recorded and witnessed by thousands of people live," Schmidt said.

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The trial initially was scheduled to start in January 2024 but was delayed as Matar's defense attorneys sought a delay pending the publishing of a book written by Rushdie regarding the attack.

Matar's attorneys also unsuccessfully sought a change of venue in October after arguing the court's location in Mayville does not have an Arab-American community.

Mayville is a village with a population of about 1,500.

Prosecutors accuse Matar of charging the stage while Rushdie was speaking and repeatedly stabbing him in an attempted murder.

Matar has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault.

He faces up to 25 years in prison but is innocent until proven guilty.

Matar was a New Jersey resident when he allegedly rushed the stage and attacked Rushdie during the literary event. Matar has dual U.S. and Lebanese citizenship.

He allegedly stabbed Rushdie in the face, neck and abdomen before he was stopped.

Matar also is accused in federal court of providing material support to the Lebanon-based designated foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Rushdie was the target of a fatwa calling for his death and issued by Iran's former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

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Khomeini issued the fatwa after Rushdie's popular book The Satanic Verses was published in 1988, which caused Rushdie to go into hiding for nearly a decade.

The book uses magical realism to suggest Satan influenced some of the verses that are included in the Quran. Many Islamic extremists view the work as blasphemous to Islam.

The Iranian government in 1998 announced it no longer supported the fatwa against Rushdie, which led to Rushdie leading a more public life before the attack.

Matar has dual U.S. and Lebanese citizenship and told media he traveled to the Chautauqua Institute event because he though Rushdie attacked Islam.

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