MAYVILLE (N.Y.)–The accused in the stabbing attack against Salman Rushdie has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, assault and other charges. The prosecution called it a “preplanned crime” as Rushdie, the famous author of “The Satanic Verses”, remained in serious condition.
An attorney representing Hadi Matar made the plea for him during an arraignment held in Western New York. He was wearing a black-and-white jumpsuit with a white mask on his face and had his hands held in cuffs.
A judge placed him under arrest after Jason Schmidt, District Attorney of the State, told Matar that he had taken steps to deliberately put Rushdie in danger. He obtained an advance pass for the speaker’s event and arrived a day earlier with a fake ID.
” This was an unprovoked attack preplanned against Mr. Rushdie,” Schmidt stated.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone said that it took too long for authorities to bring Matar before a judge, while leaving him “hooked-up to a seat at the state barracks .”
“He is entitled to presume innocence under the Constitution,” Barone said.
Matar, 24, is accused of attacking Rushdie on Friday as the author was being introduced at a lecture at the Chautauqua Institute, a nonprofit education and retreat center.
Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, and was on a ventilator and unable to speak, his agent Andrew Wylie said Friday evening. Rushdie would likely lose his injured eye.
The attack was met with shock and outrage from much of the world, along with tributes and praise for the award-winning author who for more than 30 years has faced death threats for “The Satanic Verses.”
Activists and officials from government and the media praised Rushdie for his courage and support of freedom speech, despite all risks. Ian McEwan, a longtime friend and writer called Rushdie an “inspirational defender persecuted journalists and writers across the globe.” Kal Penn, actor and author of Kal Penn, cited Rushdie as “an entire generation of artists,” especially those from the South Asian diaspora to whom he has shown remarkable warmth
President Joe Biden stated Saturday that he was shocked and “saddened” by Saturday’s attack.
“Salman rushdie–with its insight into human nature, his unparalleled sense of story and refusal to be intimidated, or silenced–stands up for essential, universal ideas,” said the statement. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. Ability to communicate ideas freely without fear. These basic building blocks are essential to any open and free society .”
Rushdie, a native of India who has since lived in Britain and the United States, is known for his satirical prose style, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” in which he criticized India’s then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi.
“The Satanic Verses” drew death threats after it was published in 1988, with many Muslims regarding as blasphemy a dream sequence based on the life of the found of Islam Muhammad, among other objections. Rushdie’s book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan, and elsewhere before Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989.
Khomeini also died in the same year. However, the fatwa is still valid. Khamenei is Iran’s supreme leader. He has not issued any fatwas of his own revocation, but Iran has not focused its attention on him in recent years.
Investigators worked to establish whether the attacker, who was born 10 years after “The Satanic Verses”, acted on his own.
District Attorney Schmidt mentioned the fatwa in his argument against bail.
” Even if the court sets a million-dollar bail, there is a chance that bail could still be met,” Schmidt stated.
“I don’t care about his resources. “We understand that yesterday’s agenda was approved and sanctioned, and that it was approved by large groups and organisations well beyond Chautauqua County,” said the prosecutor.
Barone stated that Matar had been openly communicating with him, and that he would continue to work over the next few weeks in order to find out more about Matar, such as whether or not he suffers from addiction or psychological issues.
Matar hails from Fairview in New Jersey. Rosaria Calabrese, manager of the State of Fitness Boxing Club, a small, tightly knit gym in nearby North Bergen, said Matar joined April 11 and participated in about 27 group sessions for beginners looking to improve their fitness before emailing her several days ago to say he wanted to cancel his membership because “he wouldn’t be coming back for a while.”
Gym proprietor Desmond Boyle stated that he did not see anything violent about Matar. He described him as quiet and polite, but who looked “tremendously unhappy” and refused to be welcomed by Boyle and other gym owners.
“He always had the same look when he entered his office. Boyle stated that it looked as if it were the most difficult day in his life.
Matar was the child of parents from Yaroun, southern Lebanon. Ali Tehfe told The Associated Press that Matar was brought up in America by his father.
Journalists who visited Yaroun Saturday were asked for their departure. The spokespeople of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, did not reply to our requests for comment.
Theocratic Iran and its state-run media did not give any motive. Interviews with Iranians in Tehran by the Associated Press revealed that some Iranians praised the attack against an author, believing it to be a tarnishing of the Islamic faith. Others were concerned about the possibility of further isolation.
An AP reporter witnessed the attacker stab or punch Rushdie about 10 or 15 times. Rushdie was stabbed or punched by Dr. Martin Haskell. He is a doctor who was one of those who helped Rushdie.
Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, suffered a facial injury and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. Rushdie and he had intended to talk about the United States’ role as refuge for artists and writers in exile.
A state trooper was assigned to Rushdie’s lecture. The trooper, according to state police, made the arrest. But long-time visitors to Rushdie’s lecture questioned the reason for not tightening security, given his threats and the bounty of $3 million.
The publication of “The Satanic Verses” in 1988 sparked often-violent protests around the Muslim world against Rushdie, who was born to a Muslim family and has long identified as a nonbeliever, once calling himself “a hardline atheist.”
At least 45 people were killed in riots, including 12 in Rushdie’s hometown of Mumbai. In 1991, a Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death and an Italian translator survived a knife attack. In 1993, the book’s Norwegian publisher was shot three times and survived.
The death threats and bounty forced Rushdie into hiding. He was protected by the British government, with an armed guard who was available 24 hours a day. Rushdie returned to public life after nine years in seclusion and continued his criticisms of religious extremism.
In 2012 he published a memoir about the fatwa titled “Joseph Anton,” the pseudonym Rushdie used while in hiding.
He stated that terror was actually the art and fear of fear during a New York speech that year: “The only thing you can do to defeat it is to decide not be afraid .”
Follow
Related Articles:
Bad weather forces Biden’s early departure
INFLATION FIREWORKS: 4th Of July BBQs Just Got A Lot More Expensive
EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Asks Elon Musk For Help Running Power Grid As Americans Buy More Electric Cars
White House Rejects Blame For Deadly Migrant Smuggling Event In Texas, Says Border Is ‘Closed’
