“I don’t like this person. I don’t think he’s a good man,” said Hadi Matar at New York Post by evoking the intellectual.
The American accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie said in an interview on Wednesday that he was “surprised» that the author of satanic verses survived the attack, which took place at a conference in New York State on Friday. “When I heard he survived I was surprisedSaid Hadi Matar to the New York Post, which indicates having contacted him in prison. The suspect, arrested immediately after the attack, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder on Saturday and is due to appear in court again on Friday.
Hadi Matar, 24, did not say whether he was inspired by the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 from Iran, calling for the death of the author of the satanic verses, considered blasphemous. “I have respect for the Ayatollah. I think he’s a remarkable person. That’s all I’ll say about it“, he assured the New York tabloid, which writes that Hadi Matar’s lawyers advised him not to talk about this subject.
SEE ALSO – Assault on Salman Rushdie: Iran “categorically” denies any link with the assailant
Rushdie”hypocritical»
Hadi Matar told the newspaper that he read “a few pagesfrom Salman Rushdie’s novel. The 75-year-old British author, stabbed a dozen times and evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, was briefly placed on a ventilator before his condition improved. “The road to recovery has begun“, had underlined his agent on Sunday. “I don’t like this person. I don’t think he’s a good man“, launched the suspect to the New York Post about the intellectual. “I don’t like it, I really don’t like it.»
“He is someone who attacked Islam“, he added. Watching videos of the author on YouTube, he found it “hypocritical“, he continued. He said he was not in contact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and learned of Salman Rushdie’s presence at a conference at a cultural center in Chautauqua, in upstate New York, via Twitter. Originally from the state of New Jersey, he told the American media that he took the bus to the city of Buffalo, then a Lyft – competitor of Uber and taxis – to get to Chautauqua.
Read alsoAssassination attempt on Salman Rushdie: the ambiguities of the Iranian regime
“I wasn’t doing anything in particular, I was just wandering around“, he detailed, “I was just outside the whole time“. As Salman Rushdie took the stage in an amphitheater, a man rushed to the stage before stabbing him several times, including in the neck and abdomen. Hadi Matar had returnedexchange» and more religious from a trip in 2018 to Lebanon, the country of origin of his family, his mother said on Monday to the website of the DailyMail.
SEE ALSO – Salman Rushdie in recovery, his family say they are “relieved”