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Salman Rushdie attack trial: Author was too stunned to react after being stabbed on stage British author Sir Salman Rushdie was so stunned when a masked man began stabbing him on stage that he did not try to fight back, a trial against his alleged attacker has heard.
Prosecutors at Chautauqua County Court in New York on Monday said that the 2022 attack was "so fast and came so unexpectedly that Mr Rushdie continued to sit in his chair after his attacker inflicted the first few stab wounds.".
The attack while Sir Salman was speaking on stage in western New York in August 2022 left him seriously wounded and blind in one eye.
Sir Salman had worried for his safety since his 1989 novel The Satanic Verses was denounced as blasphemous by many Muslims and led to Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issuing a fatwa calling for his death.
Prosecutors accuse Hadi Matar of rushing the stage as the Booker Prize-winning author was about to give a lecture and stabbing the author repeatedly.
