After Apology, Rushdie Agrees To Drop Libel Suit

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Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses,” received an apology to settle a British libel lawsuit over a book written by a policeman who drove a car for him after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini threatened Mr. Rushdie’s life.

Lawyers for the former policeman, Ron Evans, apologized to Mr. Rushdie today at a hearing in London and said the book, “On Her Majesty’s Service,” contained 11 “false statements.” The publisher, John Blake Publishing, offered to destroy 4,000 copies and rewrote the book to correct the false claims.

“It is a very difficult thing to do, to stand up in the High Court of London and admit to be a liar,” Mr. Rushdie told reporters after the hearing. “If they do that, it is enough for me.”

Mr. Rushdie went into hiding following the 1988 publication of “The Satanic Verses.” Khomeini, then Iran’s spiritual leader, had called for Mr. Rushdie’s assassination, claiming the book was blasphemous. Muslims around the world burned copies of the novel.

Mr. Evans wrote a book about his career as a police driver and excerpts were published earlier this month in the Mail on Sunday.

Among the book’s claims that were corrected were an allegation that Mr. Rushdie’s ex-wife, Elizabeth West, married Mr. Rushdie for his money, that Mr. Rushdie’s relationship with his protection team was unfriendly and hostile, that safe houses were paid for by the government, not Mr. Rushdie, and that the author was scruffy and unhygienic.


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