By special correspondent
CHICAGO: The literary agent for Salman Rushdie — attacked by a pro-Iran activist at an event in New York state on Friday — said that the author had been taken off his ventilator, was able to talk and had been making jokes.
Hadi Matar, 24, arrested for the attack, was charged but denied bail as prosecutors argued that he had international support for his actions.
Rushdie’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, told media on Sunday that the author, the subject of a death fatwa issued by the late Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini 33 years ago, remained hospitalized due to serious injuries.
Wylie had previously described Rushdie’s condition as bleak, noting that the author was in a “critical condition,” that he was “likely to lose an eye,” and had suffered damage to his arm and his liver.
The news about the improved condition of Rushdie, 75, however, encouraged hope and tempered the attack as a failed attempt by the extremist Iran regime, accused of fostering terrorism around the world.
The suspect, Hadi Matar, 24, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree. He was arraigned on Saturday night at Chautauqua County Jail in New York.
Bail for Matar was denied with prosecutor’s arguing that Matar had international support and could easily flee the country.
Mr Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and in the abdomen, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, by helicopter.
“Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” his agent said.
No motive or charges have yet been confirmed by police, who are in the process of obtaining search warrants to examine a backpack and electronic devices found at the centre.
Police told a news conference that staff and audience members had pinned the attacker to the ground where he was arrested. A doctor in the audience gave Mr Rushdie first aid.
The interviewer who was with Mr Rushdie, Henry Reese, suffered a minor head injury and was taken to a local hospital. Mr Reese is the co-founder of a non-profit organisation that provides sanctuary to writers exiled under threat of persecution.
Linda Abrams, an onlooker from the city of Buffalo, told The New York Times that the assailant kept trying to attack Mr Rushdie after he was restrained.
“It took like five men to pull him away and he was still stabbing,” Ms Abrams said. “He was just furious, furious. Like intensely strong and just fast.”
Indian-born novelist Mr Rushdie catapulted to fame with Midnight’s Children in 1981, which went on to sell over one million copies in the UK alone.
But his fourth book, published in 1988 – The Satanic Verses – forced him into hiding for nearly 10 years.
The surrealist, post-modern novel sparked outrage among some Muslims, who considered its content to be blasphemous – insulting to a religion or god – and was banned in some countries.
Suspect pleads not guilty to attempted murder
The man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie at a literary event pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges on Saturday, as the severely injured author appeared to show signs of improvement in hospital.
Hadi Matar, 24, was arraigned in court in New York state, with prosecutors outlining how Rushdie had been stabbed approximately 10 times in what they described as a planned, premeditated assault.
After the on-stage attack on Friday, Rushdie had been helicoptered to hospital and underwent emergency surgery.
His agent Andrew Wylie had said the writer was on a ventilator and in danger of losing an eye, but in an update on Saturday he told the New York Times that Rushdie had started to talk again, suggesting his condition had improved.
Author of The Satanic Verses and Midnight’s Children, Rushdie had lived in hiding for years after Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered his killing.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday called it a “vicious” attack and offered prayers for Rushdie’s recovery.“Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals. Truth. Courage. Resilience,” Biden said in a statement.
Matar is being held without bail and has been formally charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault with a weapon. Police provided no information on his background or what might have motivated him.
Effective death sentence
The 75-year-old novelist had been living under an effective death sentence since 1989 when Iran’s then-supreme leader Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill the writer.
The fatwa followed the publication of the novel The Satanic Verses which enraged some Muslims who said it was blasphemous.
In a recent interview with Germany’s Stern magazine, Rushdie spoke of how, after so many years living with death threats, his life was “getting back to normal”.
“For whatever it was, eight or nine years, it was quite serious,” he told a Stern correspondent in New York. “But ever since I’ve been living in America, since the year 2000, really there hasn’t been a problem in all that time.”
Rushdie moved to New York in the early 2000s and became a US citizen in 2016. Despite the continued threat to his life, he was increasingly seen in public — often without noticeable security.
Security was not particularly tight at Friday’s event at the Chautauqua Institution, which hosts arts programmes in a tranquil lakeside community near Buffalo.
Witnesses said Rushdie was seated on stage and preparing to speak when Matar sprang up from the audience and managed to stab him before being wrestled to the ground by staff and other spectators.
Matar’s family appears to come from the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon, though he was born in the United States, according to a Lebanese official.
An AFP reporter who visited the village on Saturday was told that Matar’s parents were divorced and his father — a shepherd — still lived there.
Journalists who approached his father’s home were turned away. Matar was “born and raised in the US,” the head of the local municipality, Ali Qassem Tahfa, told