Prosecutors say Matar, 24, stabbed Rushdie in the neck, stomach, chest, hand and right eye at an August 12 literary event in western New York, before onlookers intervened. Rushdie had been sitting in a chair onstage at the Chautauqua Institution waiting to be introduced for a discussion of protections for writers in exile and freedom of expression.
The author was recovering in a Pennsylvania hospital in the days after the attack. A Rushdie family lawyer did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking an update on his condition.
Henry Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh's City of Asylum, was onstage with Rushdie and suffered a gash to his forehead, bruises and other minor injuries.
Matar, who has been held without bail since his arrest, arrived at Chautauqua County Court in a black-and-white striped jail jumpsuit, wearing shackles and a white medical face mask. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault. Matar lived with his mother in Fairview, New Jersey.
He is due back in court on September 13 when a judge will hear arguments on a prosecution request to limit who is allowed to review material disclosed ahead of trial, according to Schmidt, the district attorney. Schmidt did not rule out additional charges, pending the continuing investigation.
In a jailhouse interview with The New York Post after his arrest, Matar spoke about disliking Rushdie and praised Iran's late supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini issued an edict in 1989 demanding Rushdie's death over his novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.
Rushdie had spent years in hiding but had travelled freely over the past two decades.
- AP
