By 1news.co.nz
Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie was taken off a ventilator and able to talk on Sunday, a day after he was stabbed as he prepared to give a lecture in New York.
Rushdie remained hospitalised with serious injuries, but fellow author Aatish Taseer tweeted in the evening that he was “off the ventilator and talking (and joking).” Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed that information without offering further details.
Earlier in the day, the man accused of attacking him Friday (New York time) at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat centre, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a “preplanned” crime.
READ MORE: Salman Rushdie stabbing attack suspect charged with attempted murder
An attorney for Hadi Matar entered the plea on his behalf during an arraignment in western New York. The suspect appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask, with his hands cuffed in front of him.
A judge ordered him held without bail after District Attorney Jason Schmidt told her Matar, 24, took steps to purposely put himself in position to harm Rushdie, getting an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arriving a day early bearing a fake ID.
“This was a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack on Mr Rushdie,” Schmidt said.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge while leaving him “hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks.”
“He has that constitutional right of presumed innocence,” Barone added.
Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, Wylie said Friday evening (local time). He was likely to lose the injured eye. An AP reporter witnessed the attacker stab or punch Rushdie about 10 or 15 times.
READ MORE: Praise and worry in Iran after Rushdie attack, government quiet
Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, suffered a facial injury and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. He and Rushdie had planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for writers and other artists in exile.
A state trooper and a county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to Rushdie’s lecture, and police said the trooper made the arrest. But afterward some longtime visitors to the Chautauqua Institution questioned why there wasn’t tighter security given the threats against Rushdie and a bounty of more than $4.7 million (US$3 million) on his head.
On Saturday (local time) the centre said it was boosting security through measures such as requiring photo IDs to purchase gate passes, which previously could be obtained anonymously. Patrons entering the amphitheatre where Rushdie was attacked will also be barred from carrying bags of any type.
The changes, along with an increased presence of armed police officers on the bucolic grounds, came as something of a shock to Chautauqua who have long relished the laid-back atmosphere for which the nearly 150-year-old vacation colony is known.
His agent says the writer has a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and is likely to lose an eye. (Source: 1News)
News about the stabbing has led to renewed interest in The Satanic Verses, which topped best seller lists after the fatwa was issued in 1989. As of Saturday afternoon (local time), the novel ranked number 13 on Amazon.com.