Stab Attack on Rushdie ‘Preplanned,’ ‘Sanctioned by Larger Groups’: Prosecutor

MAYVILLE, New York — The man accused in the stabbing attack on Salman Rushdie pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a “preplanned” crime that was “sanctioned by larger groups.”An attorney for Hadi Matar entered the plea on his behalf during an arraignment in western New York. The suspect appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands cuffed in front of him.A judge ordered him held without bail after District Attorney Jason Schmidt told her Mr. Matar took steps to purposely put himself in position to harm Mr. Rushdie, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early bearing a fake ID.“This was a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack on Mr. Rushdie,” Mr. Schmidt said.Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Mr. Matar in front of a judge while leaving him “hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks.”“He has that constitutional right of presumed innocence,” Mr. Barone added.Mr. Matar, 24, is accused of attacking Mr. Rushdie on Friday as the author was being introduced at a lecture at the Chautauqua Institute, a nonprofit education and retreat center.Mr. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, and was on a ventilator and unable to speak, his agent Andrew Wylie said Friday evening. Mr. Rushdie was likely to lose the injured eye.The attack was met with shock and outrage from much of the world, along with tributes and praise for the award-winning author who for more than 30 years has faced death threats for “The Satanic Verses.”Authors, activists and government officials cited Mr. Rushdie’s courage and longtime advocacy of free speech despite the risks to his own safety. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan called Mr. Rushdie “an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists across the world,” and actor-author Kal Penn cited him as a role model “for an entire generation of artists, especially many of us in the South Asian diaspora toward whom he’s shown incredible warmth.”President Biden said Saturday in a statement that he and first lady Jill Biden were “shocked and saddened” by the attack.“Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals,” the statement read. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear. These are the building blocks of any free and open society.”Mr. Rushdie, a native of India who has since lived in Britain and America, is known for his surreal and satirical prose style, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” in which he sharply criticized India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi.“The Satanic Verses” drew death threats after it was published in 1988, with many Muslims regarding as blasphemy a dream sequence based on the life of the Prophet Muhammad, among other objections. Mr. Rushdie’s book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan and elsewhere before Iran’s Grand Ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Mr. Rushdie’s death in 1989.The Ayatollah died that same year, but the fatwa remains in effect. Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran in recent years hasn’t focused on the writer.Investigators were working to determine whether the assailant, born a decade after “The Satanic Verses” was published, acted alone.Mr. Schmidt alluded to the fatwa as a potential motive in arguing against bail.“Even if this court were to set a million dollars bail, we stand a risk that bail could be met,” Schmidt said.“His resources don’t matter to me. We understand that the agenda that was carried out yesterday is something that was adopted and it’s sanctioned by larger groups and organizations well beyond the jurisdictional borders of Chautauqua County,” the prosecutor said.Mr. Barone, the public defender, said after the hearing that Mr. Matar has been communicating openly with him and that he would spend the coming weeks trying to learn about his client, including whether he has psychological or addiction issues.Mr. Matar is from Fairview, New Jersey. The manager of the State of Fitness Boxing Club, a small, tightly knit gym in nearby North Bergen, Rosaria Calabrese, said Mr. Matar joined April 11 and participated in about 27 group sessions for beginners looking to improve their fitness before emailing her several days ago to say he wanted to cancel his membership because “he wouldn’t be coming back for a while.”Gym owner Desmond Boyle said he saw “nothing violent” about Mr. Matar, describing him as polite and quiet, yet someone who always looked “tremendously sad.” He said Mr. Matar resisted attempts by him and others to welcome and engage him.“He had this look every time he came in. It looked like it was the worst day of his life,” Mr. Boyle said.Mr. Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon, the mayor of the village, Ali Tehfe, told the Associated Press.Flags are visible across the village of Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah and portraits of leader Hassan Nasrallah, Khamenei, Khomeini and slain Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.Journalists visiting Yaroun on Saturday were asked to leave. Hezbollah spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.Iran’s theocratic government and its state-run media assigned no motive for the attack. In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed by the AP praised the attack on an author they believe tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worried it would further isolate their country.An AP reporter witnessed the attacker stab or punch Rushdie about 10 or 15 times. Dr. Martin Haskell, a physician who was among those who rushed to help, described Mr. Rushdie’s wounds as “serious but recoverable.”Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, suffered a facial injury and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. He and Mr. Rushdie had planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for writers and other artists in exile.A state trooper and a county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to Mr. Rushdie’s lecture, and state police said the trooper made the arrest. But afterward some longtime visitors to the center questioned why there wasn’t tighter security given the threats against Mr. Rushdie and a bounty of more than $3 million on his head.News about the stabbing has led to renewed interest in “The Satanic Verses,” which topped best seller lists after the fatwa was issued in 1989. As of Saturday afternoon, the novel ranked No. 13 on Amazon.com.The book’s publication in 1988 sparked often-violent protests around the Muslim world against Mr. Rushdie, who was born to a Muslim family and has long identified as a nonbeliever, once calling himself “a hardline atheist.”He has said that terrorism was really the art of fear: “The only way you can defeat it is by deciding not to be afraid.”

Stab Attack on Rushdie ‘Preplanned,’ ‘Sanctioned by Larger Groups’: Prosecutor

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