Salman Rushdie will testify in the trial of a man accused of stabbing him

Author Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed and blinded in one eye two years ago by an attacker who forced him onto the stage in front of hundreds of people, will testify in the man’s trial, prosecutors said Friday.

Attacker Hadi Matar is charged with attempted second-degree murder and assault with a weapon in connection with the August 2022 attack in Chautauqua County in western New York. Prosecutors say the attack, in which Rushdie was stabbed about 10 times, was premeditated. Matar pleaded not guilty.

The trial, which could last up to seven weeks, was scheduled to begin Tuesday. But on Friday, an appeals court judge granted a defense request to postpone the trial while the court considers a separate defense request to move the trial out of Chautauqua County.

Nathaniel Barone, a public defender representing Matar, said it was important to delay the trial “to preserve my client’s right to a fair trial,” which, he added, was common in Chautauqua County because of the publicity surrounding the Case surrounds, impossible is the lack of a local Arab-American community.

Rushdie, who went into hiding for years after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill the author after his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” was published, will most likely testify during the first two days of the prosecution, officials said on Friday. He is one of about 15 witnesses expected to testify, officials said.

Matar also faces federal terrorism charges, including providing “material support and resources” to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia in Lebanon. He and his family moved from Lebanon to the United States when he was a child. Matar was living in New Jersey and working at a clothing store at the time of the attack.

Prosecutors said Friday that Matar has declined to resolve the federal and state charges through a single plea agreement. Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said he is seeking to convict Matar on the main charge: attempted second-degree murder, which carries a possible sentence of 25 years in prison.

When the attack occurred, Rushdie was standing on the stage of a 4,000-seat amphitheater at the Chautauqua Institution, a summer destination for literary and arts programs, giving a lecture about how the United States had been a safe haven for exiled writers. Matar stormed onto the stage and stabbed the author in the neck and stomach.

The attack that shocked the literary world took place in front of a large audience. Linda Abrams, sitting in the front row, said it took about half a dozen people to pull Matar away from Rushdie.

Rushdie, then 75, was flown by helicopter to a hospital where he underwent hours of surgery and was placed on a ventilator, said his agent at the time, Andrew Wylie.

Rushdie suffered permanent injuries as a result of the attack, including losing vision in his right eye. When he made a surprise appearance at the PEN America literary gala last year, his voice was weak and he was noticeably thinner.

That year he published his memoirs, “Knife,” which detailed the attack and its aftermath.

“It was a very personal story for Mr. Rushdie to write about,” Schmidt said Friday.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.