Salman Rushdie stabbing trial: Excerpts from Satanic Verses author’s testimony about harrowing knife attack
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Author Salman Rushdie testified Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of attacking him with a knife just after he took his seat for a panel discussion at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
The noted author was on the witness stand for just about an hour, during which he described the 2022 assault in front of a shocked audience in precise detail. He also told some jokes with the comfort of someone experienced at public speaking.
The man accused in the attack, Hadi Matar, was grabbed by bystanders and arrested. He has pleaded not guilty.
Following are highlights of Rushdie’s testimony:
Rushdie describes the moment when he realized he was in danger
“Before we were able to start having the conversation we were going to have, I was aware of this person rushing at me from my righthand side,” Rushdie said. “I only saw him at the last minute. I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask.”
“I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious to me,” he said.
A struggle to escape
“Initially he hit me very hard,” Rushdie said. “I thought he was hitting me with his fist, but I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes. He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing.”
“I was struggling to get away from him and I was struck a number of times more on my chest and torso and around my waist,” the author said. “I was trying to get to my feet, out of the chair, and get away.”
An “enormous” pool of blood
“Then there were a number of blows to my chest and torso. Three stab wounds down the center of my chest,” he said, adding there were also injuries to his waist area. While lying on the stage, Rushdie recalled “a sense of great pain and shock and aware of the fact that there was an enormous quantity of blood that I was lying in.”
“It was a stab wound in my eye and intensely painful, and after that, I was screaming because of the pain and I couldn’t see out of the eye any more,” Rushdie said.
“It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought.”
The cross examination
Defense lawyer Lynn Shaffer got a chance to question Rushdie about the attack.
“I believe you said you are a writer,” she began.
Later she asked Rushdie if he’d be surprised that ’Bridget Jones’s Diary,” in which he makes a cameo, was her favorite movie.
“I am surprised,” Rushdie said, joking that it was “my most important work.”
The only hint at a possible defense strategy was a question about whether trauma can affect memories.
Rushdie acknowledged that he has a false memory, that he thought he stood up when he saw the attacker approaching, but that wasn’t true.
She then challenged him to remember how many times he was struck.
“I wasn’t counting at the time. I was otherwise occupied but afterward I could see them on my body. I didn’t need to be told by anybody.”
After 17 days in a hospital and weeks of rehab, Rushdie hasn’t fully recovered
“I think I’m not quite at 100%. I think I’ve substantially recovered but it’s probably 75-80%,” he said. “I’m not as energetic as I used to be. I’m not as physically strong as I used to be.”
