- Salman Rushdie was stabbed to death on stage at a public event in upstate New York.
- According to reports, he should no longer be artificially ventilated. After an emergency operation, the writer was artificially ventilated.
- The alleged 24-year-old perpetrator is being investigated for second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault.
- The attack on Rushdie has sparked outrage around the world.
Salman Rushdie was able to speak again on Saturday, the New York Times reported, citing his literary agent Andrew Wylie. Fellow writer Aatish Taseer wrote on Twitter that Rushdie was joking. The tweet was apparently later deleted.
On Friday, the 75-year-old author was attacked at an event in Chautauqua, western New York. A few minutes earlier he had taken the stage to speak about persecuted artists.
An eyewitness said a man ran onto the stage in the performance hall and stabbed Rushdie. An Associated Press reporter said the attacker punched or stabbed Rushdie 10 to 15 times. Rushdie was then flown to a hospital by helicopter.
According to the police, the 24-year-old alleged perpetrator is in custody without the possibility of being released on bail. There is no further information on a motive for the crime. Second-degree murder is a separate offense in the US legal system for the death of a human being. He can be sentenced to years in prison in New York State.
According to initial police findings, writer Salman Rushdie’s attacker probably had no accomplices. It is unclear whether the attack is related to the decades-old fatwa issued against Rushdie.
“Attack on Free Speech”
US Senator and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on Twitter that the act was an “attack on freedom of speech and thought”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres reacted with horror to the attack. French President Emmanuel Macron wrote that Rushdie was struck by “hatred and barbarism”.
The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has condemned the attack. “What a heinous act!” he wrote on Twitter. He wished the author a lot of strength for the recovery.
Rushdie had gone into hiding because of a fatwa
Because of his work “The Satanic Verses” (1988), Rushdie was once covered with a fatwa that called for his death. Some Muslims felt their religious sensibilities were offended by the work.
Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued an Islamic legal opinion calling for the killing of Rushdie and everyone involved in distributing the book. Rushdie had to go into hiding and was given police protection.
Rushdie was born in the year of Indian independence in 1947 in the metropolis of Mumbai (then Bombay). He later studied history at Cambridge. He had his breakthrough as an author with the book “Midnight Children”, which was awarded the renowned Booker Prize.
According to his publisher last year, the ayatollah’s fatwa no longer had any meaning for Rushdie. He is no longer restricted in his freedom of movement and no longer needs bodyguards.