A day after Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old American of Lebanese origin who stabbed him on Friday, said he was “not guilty” of attempted murder, the first good news emerged about the state of health of Salman Rushdie.
While his attacker awaits a new court hearing in prison on the 19th and authorities continue to search for the reason behind the attack, during an event in the state of New York, the writer no longer needed the help of a respirator to breathe this Sunday. According to his literary agent, the man who in 1989 saw a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeni, Iran’s supreme guide, call for his death after the publication the previous year of his book The Satanic Verses, considered blasphemous by many Muslims, not only the first words, as Rushdie’s son even came to assure the father “his usual sharp and defiant sense of humor”.
“After Friday’s attack, my father remains in a serious condition in hospital, receiving medical treatment,” wrote Zazar Rusdhie on Twitter. The British-American writer, born in Bombay 75 years ago, was stabbed several times in the neck and abdomen. The first reports are that he could lose an eye, having also suffered serious injuries to his arm and liver.
“Although his injuries are extensive, his sharp and defiant sense of humor remains intact,” wrote Zafar Rushdie. The writer, who gained worldwide fame in 1981 with the novel Midnight’s Children, which won him the Booker Prize that year, said his first words after leaving the fan. “The road to recovery has begun,” said his literary agent. “It will take time. The injuries are serious, but his condition is going the right way,” Andrew Wyllie said in a statement sent to the media.
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