Agent says Salman Rushdie is off fan and ‘on the road to recovery’ after attack

Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his agent confirmed on Sunday, two days after the author satanic verses He received serious injuries as a result of being stabbed at a conference in upstate New York.

The announcement followed news that the lauded writer had taken off a respirator on Saturday and was able to chat and play. Wylie went on to warn that while “Rushdie’s condition is heading in the right direction”, his recovery would be a long process. Rushdie, 75, suffered liver damage and severed nerves in his arm and eye, Wiley said, and likely lost the affected eye.

“While his life-changing injuries are severe, his usual brash and defiant sense of humor remains intact,” Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said in a statement on Sunday, noting that the attacker was in critical condition. The statement on behalf of the family also expressed gratitude to “audience members who courageously came forward to protect him”, as well as to the police, doctors and “the outpouring of love and support from around the world”.

Hadi Matar, 24, pleaded not guilty Saturday to charges of attempted murder and assault in the attack on the Chautauqua Institute, a nonprofit education and retirement center.

Hadi Matar’s attorney pleaded guilty on her behalf during the trial in western New York. The suspect appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands raised in front of him.

A judge ordered him to be held without bail after prosecutor Jason Schmidt told him that Matar, 24, deliberately set out to injure Rushdie. I WOULD.

“This was a deliberate, unprovoked and premeditated attack on Mr Rushdie,” Schmidt said.

Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities took too long to bring Matar to a judge while he “remained tied to a chair at state police headquarters”.

“You have a constitutional right to be presumed innocent,” added Barone.

Rushdie, 75, suffered liver damage and had nerves in his arm and eye, Wiley said Friday night. He would likely lose his damaged eye.

The attack generated shock and outrage across much of the world, as well as respect and praise for the award-winning author, who for more than 30 years has faced death threats for his satanic poetry.

Authors, activists and government officials have cited Rushdie’s courage and long-standing defense of free speech despite the risks to his safety. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan called Rushdie “an inspirational advocate for writers and journalists in exile around the world”, and actor and author Cal Penne cited him as a role model for “an entire generation of artists, especially many of us in South Asia.” Diaspora, for which he showed incredible warmth.”

President Joe Biden said Saturday that he and First Lady Jill Biden were “shocked and saddened” by the attack.

“Salman Rushdie, with his vision of humanity, his unparalleled sense of history, his refusal to be bullied or silenced, represents essential and universal ideals,” the statement said. “Truth. Courage. Resistance. Ability to share ideas without fear. It is the cornerstone of any free and open society.”

Rushdie, a native of India who has since lived in Britain and the US, is known for his surreal and satirical prose style, starting with the Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel Midnight’s Children, in which he sharply criticized the then Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi.

The Satanic Verses received death threats after its publication in 1988, and many Muslims considered the dream sequence based on the life of the Prophet Muhammad to be blasphemous, among other objections. Rushdie’s book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan and elsewhere before Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989.

Khomeini died the same year, but the fatwa is still in effect. Iran’s current Supreme Leader Khamenei has never issued a fatwa to repeal the decree, although Iran has not targeted the writer in recent years.

Investigators were working to determine whether the suspect, who was born a decade after The Satanic Verses was published, acted alone.

District Attorney Schmidt pointed to the fatwa as a potential reason to argue against bail.

“Even if this court sets bail at $1 million, we run the risk of bail being granted,” Schmidt said.

“Your resources don’t matter to me. “We understand that the agenda that was implemented yesterday has been adopted and is being sanctioned by larger groups and organizations outside the jurisdictional boundaries of Chautauqua County,” the prosecutor said.

Barron, the public defender, said after the hearing that Matar had been open with him and would spend the next few weeks trying to find out more about his client, including whether he has psychological or addiction issues.

Kill is from Fairview, New Jersey. Rosaria Calabrese, manager of the State Fitness Boxing Club, a small, tight-knit gym in nearby North Bergen, said Matar joined on April 11 and participated in about 27 beginner group sessions trying to improve their fitness before submitting a email to her. days ago. to say. He wanted to cancel his membership because “he wouldn’t be back for a long time”.

Gym owner Desmond Boyle said he saw “nothing violent” in Matara and described him as polite and calm, but always looking “extremely sad”. She said that Matari resisted her and others’ efforts to welcome and engage her.

“He had that look on his face every time he walked in. It felt like the worst day of his life,” Boyle said.

Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun, in southern Lebanon, the village’s mayor, Ali Tehfe, told the Associated Press.

Flags of the Iranian-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah, portraits of leader Hassan Nasrallah, Khamenei, Khomeini and murdered Iranian general Qassem Soleimani can all be seen in the village.

Journalists who visited Yarun on Saturday were asked to leave. Hezbollah spokespersons did not respond to requests for comment.

Iran’s theocratic government and its state media did not give a reason for the attack. In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed by the AP praised the attack on the sniper, saying it is a blow to the Islamic faith, while others fear it will further isolate their country.

On Friday, an AP reporter saw the attacker hit Rushdie 10 to 15 times.

Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, suffered injuries to his face, was treated and released from the hospital, police said. He and Rushdie planned to treat America as a haven for writers and other artists in exile.

A state trooper and a county sheriff’s representative were dispatched to Rushdie’s conference, and police said the officer made the arrest. Later, though, some visitors to the Chautauqua Institute questioned why security wasn’t tighter, given the threats against Rushdie and the more than $3 million bounty on his head.

On Saturday, the center said it was tightening security through measures such as requiring photo identification to purchase entry passes, which were previously available anonymously. Customers entering the amphitheater where Rushdie was attacked are also prohibited from carrying bags of any kind.

The changes, along with the increased presence of armed police in the bucolic grounds, surprised the Chautauquans, who have long enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere for which the nearly 150-year-old summer camp is known.

News of the stabbing sparked renewed interest. satanic verseswhich topped the bestseller list in 1989 after the publication of Fatwa. As of Saturday afternoon, the novel was ranked 13th on Amazon.com.

The death threats and favors Rushdie faced after the book’s publication forced him into hiding under the British government’s protection program, which included a 24-hour armed guard. After nine years of seclusion, Rushdie cautiously resumed his public appearances.

In 2012, he published a memoir titled About Fatwa Jose AntonioThe alias he used to hide.

In a speech in New York that year, he said that terrorism is really the art of fear: “The only way to defeat it is to decide not to be afraid.”