Salman Rushdie described in graphic details on Tuesday, crazy moments in 2022, when the masked man threw himself at him on the stage in Western New York and grass him many times with a knife, leaving him with life -threatening injuries.
The 77-year-old author turned to the jurors on the second day of testimonies at the trial of 27-year-old Hadi Matar, who did not plead guilty for trying to murder and assault. For the first time since Rushdie's attack he found himself in the same room with a man accused of trying to kill him.
“I saw him only at the last minute,” said Rushdie. “I was aware of someone who is wearing black clothes or dark clothes and a black face mask. I was very hit by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very cruel. “
Rushdie said he first thought that his attacker holding a knife was hit by his fist.
“But I saw a large amount of blood spilling into my clothes,” he said. “He hit me many times. Hit and cutting. “
Rushdie said that he hit him more times in the chest and torso and stabbed him in his chest as he tried to escape.
“I was very seriously injured. I couldn't get up anymore. I fell, “he said.
“I died”
Lying on the stage, he remembered “a sense of great pain and shock and the aware of the fact that there was a huge amount of blood in which I lay.”
“It occurred to me that I was dying. It was my dominant thought, “he said.
His wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, cried in the second row of the courtroom.
Rushdie was blinded with one eye during the attack and spent the months in recovery, which he described in detail in the diary released last year. The speaker who was to appear in Rushdie was also wounded.
The jury heard opening declarations on Monday, followed by employees' testimonies at the Chautauqua Institution, non-profit Art and Education Center, in which the attack took place about 120 kilometers south of Buffalo.
Matar has been in custody since he was suppressed by viewers after the attack.
The process is expected to last up to two weeks.
The jurors are unlikely to hear about Fatwa, published by the deceased Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Chomeini calling for Rushdi's death, according to the district prosecutor Jason Schmidt. Rushdie, author Children at midnight AND City of victoryI spent my years in hiding after Chomeini announced Fatwa in 1989 after the novel was published Satanic verseswho was inspired by the life of the prophet Muhammad and which some Muslims consider blasphemous.
“This is not a case of incorrect identity”
Schmidt said that the discussion of the Matar motif would be unnecessary in the state process, taking into account the live attack, which expected Rushdie to hear a lecture on the safety of writers.
“This is not a case of incorrect identity,” said Schmidt during opening declarations on Monday. “Mr. Matar is a person who attacked Mr. Rushdi without provocation.”
The public defender representing Matara told the jury that the case is not as simple as prosecutors.
“Elements of crime are more than” something really bad ” – they are more defined,” said Lynn Schaffer. “Something bad happened, something very bad happened, but the district prosecutor must prove much more.”
In a separate indictment, the federal authorities claim that Matar was willing to act by supporting the terrorist organization in 2006. Fatwa. The later trial of federal allegations of terrorism will be planned at the District Court in the USA in Buffalo.