US: Salman Rushdie attacker pleads ‘not guilty’ to attempted murder

The perpetrator of the attack on Salman Rushdie, a young Lebanese-American, was brought before a New York state judge, before whom he pleaded “not guilty” to the charge of “attempted murder” of the writer, who remains in serious condition , but was able to say a few words yesterday, Saturday, evening.

Salman Rushdie, who has faced death threats since Iran issued a fatfa in 1989 a year after the author’s book The Satanic Verses was published, was stabbed ten times yesterday, Friday, in an attack that sparked outrage in West, but welcomed by extremists in Iran and Pakistan.

During a procedural hearing in Chotocqua court, Hadi Mattar, 24, who is being prosecuted for “attempted murder and assault,” appeared in the convict’s black and white striped uniform, handcuffed and masked and without saying a word, according to New York Times and local press photos.

Premeditated attack

Prosecutors believe Friday’s attack on a cultural center in Chotocqua, where Rushdie was scheduled to give a lecture, was premeditated. At 75, the intellectual was stabbed at least ten times in the neck and abdomen.

The suspect, who lives in New Jersey, has pleaded “not guilty” through his lawyer and will appear in court again on August 19.

Yesterday, Saturday, the authorities and relatives of Salman Rushdie did not make any statements regarding the state of health of the British writer, who is a naturalized American. He was taken Friday to the hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, on the lakeshore that separates the US from Canada, and was placed on respiratory support.

However, Andrew Wylie’s literary agent, who had expressed many concerns on Friday night to the New York Times – “Salman will probably lose an eye, the nerves in his arm are severed and he was stabbed in the liver” – simply told the NYT that his client started talking again last night, without specifying whether or not he came off the ventilator.

Coincidentally, the German magazine Stern had interviewed Rushdie a few days before the attack: “Since I’ve been living in the United States I don’t have a problem anymore (…) My life is normal again,” the author assures in this interview which will be published on August 18, while declaring himself “optimistic” despite “daily death threats”.

Iran’s fatfa never came, and many translators of Rushdie’s books were injured in attacks and even killed, such as Japan’s Hiroshi Igarashi who was stabbed to death in 1991.

In the United States, Amazon reported an increase in orders for The Satanic Verses, and New York bookstore Strand Bookstore told AFP that “people are coming to see what he’s written and find out what we have” in stock.

The attack was welcomed in Iran and Pakistan

In southern Lebanon, Ali Kassem Tahfa, the head of the village of Yaroun, told AFP that Hadi Matar was of “Lebanese origin”. The young man “was born and raised in the United States. His mother and father are from Yarun,” he assured without commenting on the attack.

But in Iran, the ultra-conservative Kaihan newspaper congratulated the attacker: “Well done to this courageous and duty-conscious man, who attacked the renegade and evil Salman Rushdie,” the newspaper wrote. “Let us kiss the hand of him who tore the throat of God’s enemy with a knife.”

At Tehran’s book market, Mehrab Bigdeli, a Shiite cleric, said he was “very happy with the news. Whoever the perpetrator is, I kiss his hand (…) May God’s curse be upon Salman Rushdie.”

In neighboring Pakistan, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Lambaik party, which is known for its violence against what it calls anti-Muslim blasphemy, also said Salman Rushdie “deserved to be killed”.

Source: AMPE