According to the indictment, the man is said to have supported the Iran-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah and tried to kill the author because of his novel “The Satanic Verses.” The book was one of the reasons why Iran’s then leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death sentence in a so-called fatwa against Rushdie in 1989.
Salman Rushdie sat in the same courtroom as his attacker on Thursday and testified for the second time, including about how he lay on stage in a pool of blood.
"I don't know what his ambition or purpose was, but I had wounds all over my body," Rushdie said in the trial, which is being held in the city of Buffalo in the US state of New York.
The award-winning author testified for over an hour, appearing “composed and matter-of-fact.” At one point, he took off his glasses to show the jury his blind right eye.
It was during a lecture in New York in 2022 that Salman Rushdie was stabbed about a dozen times, one of which left him blind in one eye. He describes the attack in his 2024 book "Knife."
Rushdie's attacker was arrested at the scene and sentenced in 2025 to 25 years in prison for attempted murder and assault.
The perpetrator denies all charges.
