Salman Rushdie's upcoming memoir delays trial of man accused of stabbing until 2022

Before going to trial, the man accused of murdering 'The Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie can search for material related to Rushdie's upcoming memoir, which details the writer's 2022 assassination attempt, a ruling has ruled. a New York judge on Wednesday.

Jury selection in Hadi Matar's trial for attempted murder and assault was originally scheduled to begin Jan. 8, but the trial is now suspended.

Matar's defense attorney, Nathaniel Barone, argued Tuesday that his client has the right under the law to view the manuscript, due in April, and related documents before going to trial. Written or recorded statements from any witnesses about the attack are considered potential evidence, attorneys said.

“It’s not just about the book,” Barone said Tuesday. “Every little note that Rushdie wrote, I receive it, I am entitled to it. Every discussion, every recording, everything he did regarding this book.

Learn more: Salman Rushdie writes 'necessary book' on his assassination in 2022

Rushdie, 75, suffered liver damage and was left blinded in his right eye and with a damaged left hand after being stabbed more than a dozen times in Western New York in August 2022. author announced in October that he had written about the attack in a memoir: “Knife: Meditations After Attempted Murder,” available for pre-order. Trial preparations were already underway when lawyers involved in the case learned of Rushdie's upcoming memoir.

District of Chautauqua County. Atty. Jason Schmidt said Rushdie's representatives refused the prosecutor's request for a copy of the manuscript, citing intellectual property rights. Schmidt dismissed the book's relevance to the trial, arguing that the attack was witnessed by a large audience in person and that Rushdie himself was able to testify. “There were recordings” of the attack, Schmidt said Tuesday.

Schmidt added Wednesday that the postponement “would not change the outcome.” Barone should subpoena the case.

Matar, 26, who lived in Fairview, New Jersey, has been held without bail since his arrest immediately after Rushdie was stabbed multiple times in front of a stunned audience at the Chautauqua Institution, an arts and education summer retreat in western New York where the author was scheduled to give a lecture on artistic freedom.

Learn more: Author Salman Rushdie on ventilator may lose eye after stabbing on stage

Rushdie, who could testify at the trial, spent years in hiding after the late Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued an edict, a fatwa, in 1989 calling for his death following the publication of the novel “The Verses “Satanics”, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Over the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely.

The motive for the 2022 attack has not been disclosed. Matar, in an interview with the New York Post after his arrest, praised Khomeini and said Rushdie had “attacked Islam, attacked their beliefs, their belief system.” He remained tight-lipped about whether Khomeini inspired him, citing a warning from his lawyer, the outlet said.

“I respect the Ayatollah. I think he's a great person. That’s all I can say about it,” Matar told the Post, noting that he had “only read a few pages” of “The Satanic Verses” but “didn’t like” the author.

Learn more: Rushie Must Die, Iranian Leader Repeats: Threat: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Says Death Order “Still Valid and Must Be Implemented.”

Last year, Rushdie announced that “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” was to be released in the United States by Penguin Random House on April 16, saying at the time: “It was a necessary book for me to write : a way of taking charge of what happened and responding to violence through art.

“Speaking for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, about the traumatic events of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie responds to violence with art and reminds us of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable” , we read in the press release from Penguin Random House. official synopsis of the upcoming book. “‘Knife’ is a captivating, intimate and ultimately invigorating meditation on life, loss, love, art – and finding the strength to get back up.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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This story was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.