Novelist Sir Salman Rushdie tells jury in terrorism trial that 'knife was a millimetre from brain' during attack on stage
The writer was attacked on stage during a speech in 2022 for which Hadi Matar was convicted of attempted murder, but he now faces terrorism charges
The novelist Sir Salman Rushdie has told a jury in a terrorism trial that a knife came a millimetre from his brain when he was attacked while giving a speech on stage in New York.
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The 79-year-old was left partially blind and spent months recovering after the attack, which also caused a severely damaged hand.
His attacker, Hadi Matar, 28, was convicted of attempted murder last year and sentenced to 25 years in prison but is also facing terrorism charges in relation to it.
Giving evidence at a Buffalo courtroom for the second time, Sir Salman recalled feeling what he thought was a punch under his chin but then feeling blood coming from his neck.
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Matar entered the stage and approached from behind before slashing the author 15 times at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.
Spectators at the event scrambled to the aid of Sir Salman and police at the event arrested the defendant before he was later charged and tried on the attempted murder charge.
At one point he removed his glasses to show his now sightless right eye and told the court: "The knife was a millimetre from my brain."
He continued: "I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me.
"It was an enormous and expansive lake of blood."
Prosecutors claim Matar carried out the threat after he acted upon his novel The Satanic Verses, which was perceived by the then Iranian Supreme Leader to be blasphemous.
The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, a religious edict, calling for the writer to be killed over The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims considered blasphemous.
Sir Salman added: "I can't say what his ambitions or his aim was, but the wounds were dispersed across my body."
Asked if he expected to receive backlash from the book, he said: "Probably, but I don't believe the book to be on trial here. I believe someone else is on trial.
"For two decades or more, I led a public life without a hint of trouble."
Matar's defence team has argued that prosecutors in the trial can't prove his intent or mindset at the time of the attack, but he could face a life sentence if convicted.
He denies the charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism, and the trial continues.