Grand jury indicts Salman Rushdie attacker Hadi Matar

• Hadi Matar, 24, is scheduled to appear in court in Chautauqua County on the charges this afternoon.
• Matar was arrested on August 12 after allegedly stabbing Rushdie multiple times.
• Rushdie was hospitalized with serious injuries, including a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm.

A grand jury has indicted a New Jersey man for allegedly stabbing author Salman Rushdie before a speech in Chautauqua, New York last week.

Hadi Matar, 24, is scheduled to appear in court in Chautauqua County on the charges this afternoon. Matar was arrested on August 12 after allegedly stabbing Rushdie multiple times in front of a terrified audience at the Chautauqua Institution.

Rushdie was hospitalized with serious injuries, including a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm, as a result of the attack. It is also possible that Rushdie will lose an eye as a result of his injuries.

The following day, when Matar’s court-appointed lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, preliminary charges were filed. The new charges were not immediately made public by the prosecutor’s office.

Rushdie’s life has been in danger since 1989, when Iran’s supreme leader at the time, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued an edict or “fatwa” demanding his death over the novel “The Satanic Verses,” which many Muslims considered blasphemous.

A semi-official Iranian foundation had offered a reward of more than $3 million.

Matar admitted in a jailhouse interview that he had only read a few pages of the divisive book. Rushdie, he added, “attacked Islam” and is not a “good person.”

Matar was also surprised Rushdie survived the attack.

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