Salman Rushdie Attack Suspect Arrested, Charged With Attempted Murder and Assault

thewrap.com:

announced Saturday.“The individual responsible for the attack yesterday, Hadi Matar, has now been formally charged with Attempted Murder in the Second Degree and Assault in the Second Degree,” Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said in a statement.The 24-year-old Fairview, New Jersey, resident is being held without bail at Chautauqua County Jail.Rushdie was giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York when the suspect rushed the stage and stabbed him in the neck and abdomen.

He was airlifted to a Pennsylvania hospital, where he underwent surgery for several hours on Friday afternoon.Later that evening, Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, reported that the 75-year-old novelist was on a ventilator and could not speak. “The news is not good,” he told the New York Times via email. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”Matar was identified and arrested at the scene.

A motive has not yet been determined.The celebrated author of “Midnight’s Children” has been targeted by violence since his 1988 work “The Satanic Verses” prompted the Iranian government to call for his death with a $3 million bounty.

He went into hiding for several years, eventually reemerging a decade later.“We have been in touch with our counterparts in the State of New Jersey where the attacker is from to share information and assist them in helping us to better understand the planning and preparation which preceded the attack so that we and the different agencies involved can determine what, if any, additional charges should be asserted,” the Chautauqua County DA’s office said.