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Rushdie testifies against his accused stabber

REUTERS
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2025

MAYVILLE, New York: The novelist Salman Rushdie showed a jury his blinded right eye on Tuesday as he testified against the man charged with trying to murder him at a talk at a rural New York venue in 2022.

Hadi Matar, 26, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault brought by the Chautauqua County district attorney.

“I was aware of this person rushing at me from my right hand side,” Rushdie testified at the courtroom in Mayville, a few miles north of the Chautauqua Institution, the site of his attack on August 12, 2022.“He hit me very hard,” Rushdie said. “Initially, I thought he had punched me. I thought he was hitting me with his fist. But very soon afterwards I saw really quite a very large quantity of blood pouring out onto my clothes, and by that time he was hitting me repeatedly. Stabbing, slashing.”

“I was very struck by his eyes which were dark and seemed very ferocious to me,” Rushdie testified.

A defence lawyer for Matar objected to the characterization, and Judge David Foley struck the answer from the very record.