MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) 鈥� Author Salman could take the stand against the man charged with before a lecture when the defendant goes on trial early next year, a prosecutor said Friday.
鈥淗e is on the people鈥檚 witness list right now heading into trial,鈥� Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said, following a court hearing in which the judge scheduled the trial for Jan. 8.
Hadi Matar, 25, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder. Authorities said the New Jersey resident left the audience and rushed the stage where the 鈥淭he Satanic Verses鈥� author was about to speak in August 2022, stabbing him more than a dozen times before onlookers intervened.
Rushdie, 76, who was left and with a damaged left hand, wrote about the attack in a 鈥淜nife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,鈥� due out April 16.
Matar has been in custody since immediately after the attack at the Chautauqua Institution, an arts and intellectual retreat in the rural southwest corner of New York state.
鈥淚 think the biggest hurdle for all of us is going to be picking a fair and impartial jury,鈥� Schmidt said. He estimated the trial itself would last two weeks or less.
Rushdie was the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death over alleged blasphemy in 鈥淭he Satanic Verses.鈥�
The Associated Press
