Aug 14 (Reuters) – Salman Rushdie, the acclaimed author who was stabbed repeatedly at a public appearance in New York state on Friday, 33 years after Iran’s then-supreme leader called for his death, he is off a ventilator and his health is improving, his agent and a son said Sunday.
“He is off the ventilator, so the road to recovery has begun,” his agent, Andrew Wylie, wrote in an email to Reuters. “It’s going to be a long one; the injuries are serious, but his condition is going in the right direction.”
Rushdie, 75, was due to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York about the importance of the United States as a haven for targeted artists when police say a 24-year-old man rushed on stage and stabbed him.
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The Indian-born writer has been living with a bounty on his head following the publication of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider to contain blasphemous passages. In 1989, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for his assassination.
Writers and politicians around the world have condemned the attack. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Iranian state institutions had incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media had reveled in the attack on the his life
“This is despicable,” Blinken said in a statement. “The United States and its partners will not waver in our determination to confront these threats, using all the appropriate tools at our disposal.”
The stabbing suspect, Hadi Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault at a court appearance Saturday, his court-appointed attorney, Nathaniel Barone, said in Reuters.
Neither local nor federal authorities have offered any additional details about the investigation, including a possible motive.
An initial law enforcement review of Matar’s social media accounts showed he was sympathetic to Shiite extremism and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to NBC New York. The IRGC is a powerful faction that Washington accuses of waging a global extremist campaign.
Rushdie was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, for treatment after the attack.
After hours of surgery, he was put on a ventilator and wasn’t able to speak until Friday evening, Wylie said in a previous health update, adding that he would likely lose an eye and have nerve damage in his arm and injuries on his arm liver
One of Rushdie’s sons said Sunday that his father remained in critical condition but was able to say a few words after coming off the ventilator.
Author Salman Rushdie is carried into a helicopter after being stabbed on stage before his scheduled speech at the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York, USA, on August 12, 2022, in this screenshot taken from ‘a video from social networks. TWITTER @HoratioGates3 /via REUTERS
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“Although his life-changing injuries are serious, his usual combative and defiant sense of humor remains intact,” Zafar Rushdie wrote on Twitter.
Iran’s authorities have made no public comment on the attack, although hardline state media have celebrated it with headlines including “Satan has been blinded” and some Iranians expressed support in line to the stabbing.
However, many other Iranians expressed sympathy for Rushdie, posting on social media their anger at the Islamic Republic’s clerical rulers for issuing the 1989 fatwa telling Muslims to kill the author.
BOUNTY WORTH MILLIONS
Iranian organizations, some linked to the government, have collected a reward worth millions of dollars for Rushdie’s murder. Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said as recently as 2019 that the edict remained “irrevocable.”
Matar was born in California and recently moved to New Jersey, the NBC New York report said, adding that he had a fake driver’s license.
Witnesses said Matar did not speak as he attacked the perpetrator. He was arrested at the scene by a state trooper after being wrestled to the ground by members of the public.
Rushdie was stabbed 10 times, prosecutors said during Matar’s arraignment, according to the New York Times.
Prosecutors told the court that Matar traveled by bus to Chautauqua Institution, an educational retreat about 12 miles (19 km) from the shores of Lake Erie, and bought a pass that admitted him to Rushdie’s lecture, the Times reported. Attendees said there were no obvious security checks.
Matar was the son of a man from Yaroun in southern Lebanon, according to Ali Tehfe, the town’s mayor. Matar’s parents immigrated to the United States, where he was born and raised, the mayor said, adding that he did not have information on his political views.
Tehfe told Reuters on Sunday that Matar’s father had returned to Lebanon several years ago and, after news of Rushdie’s stabbing spread, had locked himself in his home in Yaroun and refused to speak with no one
The Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah plays a major role in Yaroun, where posters of Khomeini and slain IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in 2020, are decorate the walls at the weekend.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters on Saturday that the group had no additional information about the attack on Rushdie. Read more
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Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut and Maria Ponnezhath in Bangalore; Editing by Daniel Wallis
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