Trial of man accused of trying to kill Salman Rushdie to begin

Hadi Matar denies the charges (AP)

Lawyers are scheduled to deliver their opening statements at the trial of the man charged with trying to fatally stab author Sir Salman Rushdie in front of a lecture audience in western New York.

Sir Salman, 77, is expected to give evidence during the trial in New York State of Hadi Matar – bringing the writer face-to-face with his alleged attacker for the first time in more than two years.

The author, who wrote Midnight’s Children and Victory City, had been about to speak about keeping writers safe from harm in August 2022 when Matar ran toward him on the stage at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheatre.

Hadi Matar is charged with severely injuring author Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack (AP)

Matar stabbed Sir Salman more than a dozen times in the neck, stomach, chest, hand and right eye, leaving him partially blind and with permanent damage to one hand.

The Indian-born British-American author detailed the attack and his long, painful recovery in a memoir, Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder, released last year.

Matar, 27, of Fairview, New Jersey, is charged with attempted murder and assault. He has pleaded not guilty. A jury was selected last week.

The accused was in court throughout the three-day process, taking notes and consulting with his legal team.

Once testimony is under way, the trial is expected to last up to 10 days.

Sir Salman was blinded in one eye in the attack (AP)

Jurors will be shown video and photos from the day of the alleged attack, which ended when onlookers rushed Matar and held him until police arrived.

The event’s moderator, Henry Reese, co-founder of City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, was also injured.

Matar told investigators he travelled by bus to Chautauqua, about 75 miles south of Buffalo. He is believed to have slept in the grounds of the arts and academic retreat the night before the attack.
Matar’s lawyer has not indicated what his defence will be.

In a separate indictment, federal authorities allege Matar was motivated by a terrorist organisation’s endorsement of a fatwa, or edict, calling for Sir Salman’s death.

Matar denies the attack (AP)

A later trial on the federal charges – terrorism transcending national boundaries, providing material support to terrorists and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organisation – will be scheduled in US District Court in Buffalo.

Sir Salman spent years in hiding after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa in 1989 over the novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous.

In the US federal indictment, authorities allege Matar believed the edict was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s then-leader, Hassan Nasrallah.