American-Lebanese Hadi Matar, 23, is accused of attempting to kill The Satanic Verses author in frenzied 2022 attack.
Published On 12 Feb 2025
Novelist Salman Rushdie has described the moment a knife-wielding attacker stormed on stage and attempted to kill him in a frenzied attack that left him blind in one eye.
The Satanic Verses author on Tuesday told jurors at the trial of his alleged attacker, 23-year-old American-Lebanese Hadi Matar, that Matar “was stabbing and slashing” at him.
“I was aware of this person rushing at me on my right-hand side,” he said, recounting how he was about to speak at an arts event in New York State in August 2022.
“I only saw him at the last minute.”
“It was a stab wound in my eye, intensely painful, after that, I was screaming because of the pain,” Rushdie said, adding that he was left in a “lake of blood”.
He said it “occurred to me I was dying” before he was stretchered out of the cultural centre and helicoptered to a trauma hospital.
On Tuesday, Rushdie nodded and waved at his wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, who was in court for her husband’s testimony on the second day of the trial.
Matar’s legal team have sought to prevent witnesses from characterising Rushdie as a victim of persecution following Iran’s 1989 issuing of a fatwa that called for his murder over supposed blasphemy in The Satanic Verses.
Matar is accused of stabbing Rushdie about 10 times with a 6-inch (15cm) blade.
As he did on the trial’s opening day, Matar said, “Palestine will be free”, as he was led into court Tuesday. He did not react as Rushdie began his evidence, biting his nails during the testimony.
Rushdie, who wore distinctive glasses polarised in one lens to mask his damaged eye, described his treatment and current health.
“The injuries were very serious and it took a long time to recover… the gash [in my neck] was so deep, it had to be held together with metal staples,” he said.
Matar previously told media