MAYVILLE | The suspect in the attack on Salman Rushdie pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault in a court in Mayville, New York on Thursday.
• Also read: Salman Rushdie attack suspect ‘surprised’ survives
Hadi Matar, 24, is accused of stabbing to death Salman Rushdie, the author of “Satanic Verses,” during a Friday conference in the nearby town of Chautauqua.
Arrested immediately after the crime, the suspect had already pleaded not guilty in a hearing on Saturday.
Head bowed, masked, handcuffed and dressed in a prisoner’s outfit with black and white stripes, Mr Matar spoke through his lawyer’s voice on Thursday.
The judge decided to hold the suspect in custody without bail.
Asked Wednesday by the New York Post, which claims to have contacted him in prison, Hadi Matar said he was “surprised” that Salman Rushdie survived the attack.
The 75-year-old British author, who was stabbed a dozen times and evacuated to a hospital by helicopter, was briefly put on a ventilator before his condition improved.
Mr Matar, 24, had not said if he was inspired by the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in 1989, calling for the death of the writer whose book The Satanic Verses was considered blasphemous.
He had just told the New York Post that he had “appreciation for the ayatollah,” someone “remarkable.”
“I don’t like this person. I don’t think he’s a good man,” the suspect told the tabloid about the intellectual.
“He is someone who has attacked Islam,” he added. After watching videos of the author on YouTube, he found him “hypocritical,” he continued.
Hadi Matar has returned “changed” and more religious from a 2018 trip to Lebanon, his family’s country of origin, his mother told the Chron website on Monday.
police protection
Born in India in 1947 into a family of non-practicing Muslim intellectuals, Salman Rushdie provoked anger in parts of the Muslim world in 1988 with the publication of “Satanic Verses,” a novel judged by the strictest to be blasphemous of the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad .
Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for the assassination of Salman Rushdie, who had been under police protection for years.
Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against the writer was never lifted and many of his translators were attacked.
After three days of silence, Iran on Monday denied any involvement in the attack, blaming Salman Rushdie himself.
“Only Salman Rushdie and his supporters deserve blame and even condemnation in this attack,” said Nasser Kanani, spokesman for the State Department.