Salman Rushdie lost sight in his eye and was able to use his hands after the brutal attack. ‘He will live… That’s the important thing’
Salman Rushdie’s representative said the author had lost sight in one eye and had to use one hand while recovering from an attack from a man who rushed onto the stage at a literary event in August. west of New York, according to a published report.
Literary agent Andrew Wylie told the Spanish-language newspaper El Pais in an article announced Saturday that Rushdie suffered three serious injuries to his neck and 15 other injuries to his chest and torso in attack that took the sight of one eye and rendered one hand inoperable.
Rushdie, 75, spent years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a decree in 1989, a decree, calling for his death following the publication of his novel “Verses of Satan.” , which some Muslims consider blasphemous. For the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely.
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, was taken into custody after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the August 12 attack on Rushdie while he was being referred at the Chautauqua Institute, a rural center 55 miles (89 km) southwest of Buffalo, which is known for its summer sermon series.
After the attack, Rushdie was treated at a Pennsylvania hospital, where he was briefly put on a ventilator to recuperate, according to Wylie. El Pais was a “brutal attack” that cut a nerve to an arm.
Wylie told the newspaper he could not say whether Rushdie would stay at the hospital or discuss his whereabouts.
“He’ll live… That’s what matters,” Wylie said.
The attack followed what Rushie and his agent thought was “the main danger…some random person coming out of nowhere and attacking,” Wylie told El Pais.
“So you can’t defend against it because it’s completely unexpected and illogical,” he said.
Wylie told the newspaper it was like the murder of Beatles member John Lennon. Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside a Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980, hours after the singer signed Chapman’s autograph.
In one prison interview with The New York PostMatar said he did not like Rushdie and praised Khomeini. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.
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