Author Salman Rushdie has been taken off a ventilator and is able to talk, his agent told media outlets in an update late Saturday.
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Rushdie, 75, was about to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York on Friday when Hadi Matar, 24, rushed the stage and stabbed the renowned author multiple times, including in the neck and abdomen, according to prosecutors and video taken from the scene by those in the audience. Rushdie was taken to area hospitals, where he underwent hours of surgery. Matar pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and assault with a weapon in a court appearance Saturday, where he was ordered to be held without bail.
SALMAN RUSHDIE STABBING SUSPECT HADI MATAR CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER
Asked about a now-deleted tweet by fellow writer Aatish Taseer, which said that “Salman is off the ventilator and talking (and joking),” Rushdie’s agent Andrew Wylie said he could confirm that information, though he did not offer further details.
Wylie’s last update came Friday, when he revealed that The Satanic Verses author had been placed on a ventilator after undergoing hours of surgery.
“The news is not good,” he said at the time. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
Rushdie drew controversy with his 1988 publication of The Satanic Verses, a book that many Muslims believed to be blasphemous. The book’s release caused riots worldwide, with 12 people dying during clashes in Rushdie’s native India. Nearly 20,000 Muslims gathered in London to burn an effigy of the author the year of the book’s release. The U.K. government hid Rushdie, a British citizen, and placed him under 24/7 armed guard at the time after authorities uncovered numerous plots on his life.
The Norwegian publisher of the book, William Nygaard, was shot three times outside his Oslo home in 1993.
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Despite the many threats on Rushdie’s life, it was revealed that there were no security checks at the New York event where he was speaking Friday, nor were there any security cameras.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul praised Rushdie’s bravery despite the fact that his life is often threatened, saying in a statement: “Here is an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power. Someone who has been out there unafraid, despite the threats that have followed him his entire adult life it seems.”
