The Chautauqua prosecutor, where the assault took place on Friday, explained that the suspect had prepared his assault by obtaining in advance a pass under a false name for the event where the writer had to intervene.
Le Monde with ap
The knife attack of which writer Salman Rushdie was the victim, on Friday, at a conference in New York State, was “premeditated,” Jason Schmidt, on Saturday August 13, said to the judge, Jason Schmidt, on Saturday August 13, County prosecutor of Chaattaqua, where the aggression takes place.
charged for aggression and attempted murder, the suspect – identified under the name of Hadi Matar – pleaded not guilty during the indictment hearing. He will appear again on August 19. The judge ordered his detention without surety after Mr. Schmidt explained that the 24-year-old had prepared his assault on Salman Rushdie, notably by obtaining a pass for the public event where the novelist had to intervene, And arriving a day earlier, under a false identity.
“It was a targeted attack, not caused and premeditated against Mr. Rushdie,” said Jason Schmidt.
The prosecutor alluded to the Fatwa of Iran whose author of the Satanic verses has been the subject for thirty-three years to oppose the liberation under bail of the suspect. “Even if this court had to set a deposit of $ 1 million, we run the risk that the amount can be harvested,” he said.
“His own income does not count for me. We see that the plan that was executed yesterday is something that was justified by groups and organizations whose importance greatly exceeds the jurisdictional boundaries of the County of Chautauqua” , added the prosecutor.
a reassuring tweet on his health
The suspect appeared before the court dressed in a black and white combination and a white mask on his face, hands handcuffed in front of him. He didn’t say a word, according to the New York Times. The lawyer committed, Nathaniel Barone, complained of the deadline that the authorities put to present his client before the judge, while leaving him “hung on a bench of the premises of the State police”. “He has constitutional right to the presumption of innocence,” he said.
m. Barone explained after the hearing that Hadi Matar openly exchanged with him and that he was going to seek to know more about his client, in particular on possible psychological problems or dependence on substances.
During the attack, Salman Rushdie, 75, was stabbed at least ten times around the neck and the abdomen when he was about to speak. He was treated in emergency and placed under respiratory assistance in a hospital in Erié, Pennsylvania, by the lake that separates the United States from Canada.
Little things filtered on Saturday on his state of health, but the British author Aatish Taseer tweeted in the evening: “I just had the most exciting news: Salman is no longer under artificial respirator And he speaks (and joke). “Salman Rushdie’s agent Andrew Wylie confirmed the information without giving more details. Mr. Taseer’s tweet was then erased.
Andrew Wylie explained on Friday that Mr. Rushdie was on respiratory assistance after suffering liver injuries and had nerves cut in one arm, and that he was likely to lose an eye.