Author Salman Rushdie is tended to after he was attacked during a lecture, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., about 75 miles (120 km) south of Buffalo.
AP Photo/Joshua Goodman
Salman Rushdie has been removed from a ventilator and is able to speak after being stabbed Friday.
Michael Hill, the president of the Chautauqua Institution where the attack occurred, tweeted the news.
Rushdie was stabbed roughly 10 times as he took the stage to deliver a lecture
Salman Rushdie is able to speak and has been removed from a ventilator after being stabbed roughly 10 times Friday as he was preparing to deliver a lecture.
Michael Hill, president of the Chautauqua Institution where the attack occurred, tweeted the news. BBC reported Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed the 75-year-old author’s condition.
—Michael Hill, Ed.D. (@MichaelHillCHQ) August 14, 2022
Previously, Wylie told The New York Times: “The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
Rushdie, whose magical realism novel “The Satanic Verses” prompted Iranian cleric Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his assassination in 1989, was attacked Friday at the Chautauqua Institution as he took the stage to deliver a lecture.
The writer’s injuries included three stab wounds to his neck and four to his stomach, puncture wounds to his right eye and chest, as well as a laceration on his right thigh, CNN reported Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said during the arraignment of Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old accused of stabbing Rushdie.
Matar pled not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault with a weapon during his arraignment on Saturday.