Jurors told how Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly in attack

Hadi Matar, 27, said Free Palestine’ as he entered court in western New York accused of the 2022 assault on the author

- ANDREA CAVALLIER

A New York court has heard how Salman Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly in a frenzied 2022 assault by an attacker who came “dangerously close to committing murder”.

Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old Lebanese-American from New Jersey, was heard saying “Free Palestine” as he was led into the courtroom in Chautauqua Lake yesterday for opening statements in his trial. Mr Matar is accused of stabbing Mr Rushdie more than a dozen times in front of a lecture audience at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater on 12 August 2022.

Mr Rushdie, the celebrated Indian-born British-American author, has faced death threats since his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses was declared blasphemous by Iran’s supreme leader. The Booker Prize-winning author was about to speak about keeping writers safe from harm at the 2022 event when Mr Matar ran toward him on the stage and “plunged” a knife into him repeatedly, district attorney Jason Schmidt told the jury.

Mr Schmidt said Mr Matar approached the stage and, “without hesitation upon reaching Mr Rushdie, this man very deliberately, forcefully and efficiently with speed plunged the knife into Mr Rushdie over and over and over and over again”.