Current:Home > MySalman Rushdie could confront man charged with stabbing him when trial begins in January-InfoLens
Salman Rushdie could confront man charged with stabbing him when trial begins in January
View Date:2024-12-23 16:27:38
MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Author Salman Rushdie could take the stand against the man charged with repeatedly stabbing him before a lecture when the defendant goes on trial early next year, a prosecutor said Friday.
“He is on the people’s witness list right now heading into trial,” Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said, following a court hearing in which the judge scheduled the trial for Jan. 8.
Hadi Matar, 25, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder. Authorities said the New Jersey resident left the audience and rushed the stage where the “The Satanic Verses” author was about to speak in August 2022, stabbing him more than a dozen times before onlookers intervened.
Rushdie, 76, who was left blinded in his right eye and with a damaged left hand, wrote about the attack in a memoir: “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” due out April 16.
Matar has been in custody since immediately after the attack at the Chautauqua Institution, an arts and intellectual retreat in the rural southwest corner of New York state.
“I think the biggest hurdle for all of us is going to be picking a fair and impartial jury,” Schmidt said. He estimated the trial itself would last two weeks or less.
Rushdie was the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death over alleged blasphemy in “The Satanic Verses.”
veryGood! (4)
Related
- Asian sesame salad sold in Wegmans supermarkets recalled over egg allergy warning
- Add Some Magic to Your Beauty Routine With the Charlotte Tilbury and Disney Collection
- Body discovered inside a barrel in Malibu, homicide detectives investigating
- Missouri governor rejects mercy plea from man set to be executed for killing 6-year-old girl
- Trump pledged to roll back protections for transgender students. They’re flooding crisis hotlines
- Lori Vallow Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole in Murders of Her Kids, Chad Daybell’s First Wife
- 9 mass shootings over the weekend rock US cities, leaving 5 dead, 56 injured
- Pre-order the Classic Nintendo inspired 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard
- California teen pleads guilty in Florida to making hundreds of ‘swatting’ calls across the US
- The best state to retire in isn't Florida, new study finds
Ranking
- Wicked Director Jon M. Chu Reveals Name of Baby Daughter After Missing Film's LA Premiere for Her Birth
- Lifeguard finds corpse in washed-up oil tank on California beach
- Lab-grown chicken coming to restaurant tables and, eventually, stores
- Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann faces pretrial hearing today
- In bizarro world, Tennessee plays better defense, and Georgia's Kirby Smart comes unglued
- Tackle your medical debt with Life Kit
- Does Texas A&M’s botched hire spell doom for classroom diversity? Some say yes
- First long COVID treatment clinical trials from NIH getting underway
Recommendation
-
RHOBH's Kyle Richards Addresses PK Kemsley Cheating Rumors in the Best Way Possible
-
Bachelor Nation's Clare Crawley Reveals Sex of First Baby
-
Body of hiker missing for 37 years discovered in melting glacier
-
Record monthlong string of days above 110 degrees finally ends in Phoenix
-
World War II veteran reflects on life as he turns 100
-
Lifeguard finds corpse in washed-up oil tank on California beach
-
Fate of American nurse and daughter kidnapped by armed men in Haiti remains uncertain
-
New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver still hospitalized, Scutari is acting governor