by Kanishka Singh and Nathan Layne
(Reuters) – Indian-born author Salman Rushdie remained in hospital after being stabbed on Friday at a conference hosted by the Chautauqua Institution in New York state.
Hadi Matar, the man suspected of stabbing the writer, pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court on Saturday, his public defender Nathaniel Barone told Reuters.
A preliminary hearing is to be held on Friday, he said.
The Chautauqua County District Attorney had announced earlier in the day that Hadi Matar had been charged with assault and attempted murder and was being held in custody.
Salman Rushdie, 75, was due to attend a conference on artistic freedom when his attacker rushed onto the stage and stabbed the novelist in the neck and chest.
After several hours of surgery, Rushdie was put on life support and was unable to speak on Friday night.
The novelist’s agent, Andrew Wylie, did not respond to inquiries about Salman Rushdie’s condition on Saturday. The New York Times, however, reported, citing Andrew Wylie, that the author had started speaking again.
Police said on Friday they had not established the motive for the attack.
According to a preliminary review of social media accounts belonging to Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old is believed to be a sympathizer of Shia extremism and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), although no definitive link is known. was found, according to NBC New York.
Prosecutors said the attack was premeditated, with Hadi Matar buying a ticket to attend the conference, the Times reported.
NBC New York reported that FBI agents visited Hadi Matar’s last known address on Friday evening, in Fairview, a Bergen County neighborhood just across the Hudson from Manhattan. .
The New York police declined to comment on this information. New Jersey police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PRICE ON SALMAN RUSHDIE’S HEAD
On February 14, 1989, a few months after the publication of Salman Rushdie’s fourth novel, “The Satanic Verses”, Ayatollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, issued a fatwa (religious decree) calling on Muslims to kill the author for his writings, forcing the British writer to live in hiding.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday hailed the “universal ideals” represented by Salman Rushdie and his writings.
“Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share our ideas without fear,” Joe Biden wrote in a statement. “These are the foundations of any free and open society.”
The attack has been condemned by writers and politicians around the world who see it as an attack on freedom of expression.
The Iranian government has not officially reacted to the attack on Salman Rushdie, but several hard-line Iranian newspapers have praised his attacker.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters on Saturday that the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group had no further information on the attack on Salman Rushdie.
(With contributions from Randi Love, Rami Ayyub, Ted Hesson and Timour Azhari; written by Joseph Ax; French version Camille Raynaud)