Trial of Salman Rushdie attacker to launch with tricky jury selection

Trial of Salman Rushdie attacker to launch with tricky jury selection

In the United States, a man is accused of attempted murder in the attempted murder trial of Indian-British author Salman Rushdie.

Hadi Matar’s trial was scheduled to start on Tuesday for the 77-year-old novelist’s repeated stabs to the face, neck, and abdomen during a public lecture in New York state in August 2022. The defense and the prosecution have argued that the legal system might be challenging because of the “bias” that the world has created against Islam.

In addition to other injuries, Rushdie’s right eye was lost and his liver damaged as a result of his attack, which had previously been the subject of death threats.

Matar, 26, has admitted guilt to the incident at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, both of which he has denied.

The trial has been postponed twice, most recently when Matar’s lawyer tried unsuccessfully to move it to a different location after Matar claimed he couldn’t get a fair trial in Chautauqua. He has refused a plea deal for a 20-year sentence.

Salman Rushdie observes the awarding of the German book trade’s Peace Prize at a ceremony in Frankfurt.

If convicted of attempted murder, Matar faces a sentence of up to 25 years in prison. The US-based dual citizen of Lebanon is also accused of supporting the Iranian-backed Lebanese organization Hezbollah, which the US refers to as a “terrorist organization,” and of carrying out a terrorism-related ad.

Prosecutors in the federal case argue Matar’s alleged attack was not random but motivated by a fatwa, or death threat, issued by Iran’s leadership against Rushdie over the author’s 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which many Muslims consider to be blasphemous.

The suspect claimed that Rushdie had attacked Islam and that he had traveled from his New Jersey home after seeing the Rushdie event advertised.

One of the trial’s first witnesses will be Rushdie, who will be the one who testify. The author has written a memoir since the attack and has stated in interviews that he believes he will pass away on stage.

Raised in a Muslim Kashmiri family, the multiple-award-winning writer was forced into a decade of hiding in 1989 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s supreme leader, called for him to be killed.

That sparked a wave of protests in support of free speech in the West. &nbsp, The Iranian government said in 1998 it would no longer back the fatwa, and Rushdie ended his years as a recluse.

Since the attack was witnessed and captured on video by many in the audience, according to the trial’s prosecutor, who said it is unlikely that the jury would learn anything about the fatwa.

Instead, they have acknowledged the difficulty in selecting a fair and impartial jury in light of the incident’s level of publicity.

According to Matar’s attorney, he fears that the current global unrest will lead to “inherent and implicit bias” toward Arab Americans and the Muslim or Arab American community in Chautauqua County.

Source: Aljazeera

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