Accused Salman Rushdie attacker claims novelist disrespected Islam

Hadi Matar, 24, was charged with attempted murder and assault in connection with last week’s attack.

Hadi Matar appears in Chautauqua County Court on Thursday. Picture: AFP

The man accused of trying to kill Salman Rushdie was motivated by strong feelings that the acclaimed novelist had disrespected Islam, prosecutors said during a Thursday hearing detailing charges.

Hadi Matar, 24, was charged with attempted murder and assault in connection with last week’s attack on Rushdie before a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in up state New York. Prosecutors said Mr Matar stabbed Rushdie multiple times in the neck and abdomen before he was apprehended at the scene.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Mr Matar indicated disrespect for Rushdie during an interview this week with the New York Post. Rushdie spent years under police protection after Iranian leaders called for his execution over his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses. The book caused an uproar among some Muslims, who called it blasphemous.

“The brazenness of Mr Matar’s attack on Mr Rushdie needs to be considered,” Mr Schmidt said during the 40-minute hearing. “He doesn’t care about his own personal freedom, and is so driven by his motive to kill Mr Rushdie that it is greater in his mind, and outweighs his own personal freedom.”

Mr Matar’s lawyer, Nathaniel Barone, entered a plea of not guilty to all counts and said there was no evidence his client had plans to leave the country. Chautauqua county judge David Foley ordered Mr Matar remanded to the Chautauqua County Jail without bail.

Mr Schmidt’s words were the most concrete statements about what motivated Mr Matar, who lived in New Jersey and is the son of Lebanese immigrants. Prosecutors are still wading through evidence to establish a more concrete motive, Mr Schmidt said, and it is possible that Mr Matar could be re-indicted on hate-crime charges.

The Iranian government denied involvement in the attack on Monday, saying Rushdie was to blame for the stabbing. In 1989, then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa that called on Muslims to kill Rushdie. A private Iranian foundation offered a multimillion-dollar bounty to anyone who killed Rushdie.

Mr Matar expressed respect and admiration for the former ayatollah, Mr Schmidt said, citing the defendant’s statements to the New York Post. The prosecutor successfully argued that the bounty would make any amount of monetary bail meaningless.

Rushdie was taken by helicopter after the stabbing to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania. Rushdie was of a ventilator, speaking and improving, Mr Schmidt said.

Mr Barone aid he didn’t wish Mr Matar to have additional communications while jailed, and asked Judge Foley to sign a gag order.

“This particular matter has touched a chord. It’s a very sensitive chord, ” Mr Barone said. “He’s entitled to a fair trial. He’s entitled to due process.”

The Wall Street Journal