On August 12, Salman Rushdie was stabbed several times by a man as he prepared to speak at a conference in the United States. Lhe British writer will retain very serious scars from the attack, according to his agent Andrew Wylie.
Article written by
Published
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
Stabbed in August in the United States, British writer Salman Rushdie has since lost the sight of one eye and the use of one hand, among other serious consequences, his agent told the Spanish daily El Pais. “He lost sight in one eye… He had three serious neck injuries. He is disabled in one hand because the nerves in his arm were severed. And he has about 15 other injuries to his chest and to the torso”said Andrew Wylie to the Spanish daily El País in an interview published this weekend.
“His wounds were very deep (…) It was a brutal attack” but “he will live”he added, thus detailing for the first time the state of health of the writer for several weeks, without indicating if he is still in the hospital.
On August 12, Salman Rushdie was about to speak at a conference in upstate New York (northeast) when a man burst onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly, especially in the neck and abdomen. Evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, the author of the satanic verses had to be put on a ventilator briefly before his condition improved.
The main suspect, Hadi Matar, an American of Lebanese origin then aged 24, was arrested immediately after the incident and pleaded not guilty during his trial which opened in mid-August in a court in Mayville, in New York State. The attack had shocked in the West – the cultural world notably gathered immediately to pay tribute to the attacked author – but had been hailed by extremists from Muslim countries such as Iran or Pakistan. The writer has been pursued for 33 years by a fatwa from the Iranian Supreme Guide condemning him to death.