Sir Salman Rushdi told the court what he thought after two years ago stabbed him, leaving him blind in one eye.
A well-known British-Indian author testified in the trial of his alleged attacker, a 27-year-old Matar, who did not find himself guilty of allegations of attack and attempted murder.
The materials are held in the court of New York a few miles from where Sir Salman was attacked on August 12, 2022 when he was going to talk about how the United States was a refuge for exiled writers.
The attack occurred after Sir Salman spent years, hiding from the threats of his life after his Satanic poems were published in 1988.
Warning: This story contains unpleasant details
Prosecutors who did not determine the motive with a knife called Sir Salman on the stand as the first witness on Tuesday morning, asking him to remember the moments before and after the attack.
The 77-year-old guy told the jury that he was sitting on stage that day, ready to turn to the audience in the prestigious Chautuk.
Shortly after Sir Salman was presented, he said he noticed a man who was racing on him on the right.
He described the attacker how to wear dark clothes and face mask, and said he was struck by a man who “were dark and seemed very fierce.”
Sir Salman said he felt the first blow to his right jaw and his neck, and first thought he had been hit. Then he saw the blood poured into clothes.
“At that moment, he repeatedly struck me, stabbed and sharply,” the author said, adding that the incident had unfolded in seconds.
Sir Salman told the court that he had been struck 15 times, with wounds to the eyes, cheeks, neck, chest, torso and hips.
The left hand was also stabbed when he tried to defend himself.
He said that the early knife of his eyes was the most painful.
At one point, he removed his glasses that hid the right eye with dark lens to find out the degree of injury.
“As you can see, this is what is left of this,” he said. “There is no vision in the eyes.”
When Sir Salman, who wore a dark costume, made his testimony, Matar often lowered his head, and two never appeared with his eyes.
The wife of Sir Salman, Lady Rushdi, shouted from her place in the second row when her husband told about the incident.
He worried about his safety after the publication of Satanic poems, his surrealist, postmodern novel, which was inspired by the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
While he became acquainted with the awareness and awards in the Western world, many Muslims considered it blasphemy and some countries banned it. Iran’s religious leader called for the author’s death from the book.
This facts – a religious decree – made Sir Salman face countless death threats. He was forced to hide for nine years and began to travel again when Iran said he would not obey the law.
Two weeks before the attack, the author told the German magazine that he lived a “relatively normal” life when threats decreased.
But the attack on Sir Salman in Chautuk, New York, crashed with a sense of security.
On Tuesday, the writer told the court that afterwards, “I came to mind that I was dying – it was my preferred thought.”
He also described the feeling that he was lying in “Blood Lake”.
He recalled how random cases, including representatives of the audience, subordinated the attacker.
“And thanks to this I survived,” said Sir Salman.
The author told the jury that he was transferred to the traumatic center where he was treated from injuries for 17 days.
Mr. Matar was arrested at the scene.
Suspect Lynn Shaffer’s lawyer, crossed Sir Salman and asked him about whether he could trust the memory of the events, given the injury he survived.
The author replied that the injury could change the memory of the people, but added that he was convinced that he had been injured 15 times.
“After I saw (wounds) on my body,” he said. “I didn’t have to tell anyone.”
Asked if he was contact with the suspect before the attack, Sir Salman replied that this was not. He also said that the attacker said nothing to him.
More witnesses are expected to be summoned in the coming days, including a surgeon who acted on Salman’s Salman, as well as law enforcement officers who responded to the attack.
