A friend and his agent have confirmed that a day after the renowned novelist was stabbed as he prepared to give a lecture in New York, Salman Rushdie has been De-ventilated and given the ability to communicate again.
A fellow novelist, Aatish Taseer, tweeted late Saturday night that Rushdie, 75, was “off the ventilator and talking (and joking)” despite being hospitalized with critical injuries.
On Friday, the man accused of attacking him at the Chautauqua Institution, a non-profit educational and retreat centre, entered a not guilty plea to attempted murder and assault charges.
Hadi Matar’s attorney made the plea on his behalf during an arraignment in western New York.
After hearing from DA Jason Schmidt that Matar, 24, obtained an early entry permit to the event where Rushdie was speaking and arrived a day early with a phoney ID, the judge ordered him jailed without bail.
Schmidt claimed that the attack on Rushdie was deliberate and well-planned.
Prosecutors alleged at Matar’s arraignment that Rushdie, who had been threatened with death for more than 30 years because of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” had been stabbed 10 times.
Writers and politicians from all around the world spoke out against the stabbing, which they saw as a threat to free speech. Rushdie and his work are held up as examples of “universal ideals” in a statement released by Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday.
Truth, bravery, Resilience. Biden referred to this as “the freedom to speak one’s mind.” You can’t have a free and open society without them.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred to the incident as “reprehensible” and “cowardly,” while his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, expressed “appalled” shock.
