Schmidt said that Matar “almost succeeded in killing Mr Rushdie” and that during the trial, they would use Matar’s “own words” to help prove his intent beyond reasonable doubt.
Salman Rushdie’s attacker came ‘dangerously close to committing murder’ during frenzied stabbing, court hears Hadi Matar, 27, was heard saying ‘Free Palestine’ as he entered court in Chautauqua Lake, New York.
Matar came “dangerously close to committing murder,” Schmidt told the court, explaining that Rushdie “lay on the ground bleeding out” and “had been stabbed straight through the right eye, severing the optic nerve.”.
Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old Lebanese-American from New Jersey, was heard saying “Free Palestine” as he was led into the courtroom in Chautauqua Lake on Monday for opening statements in his trial.
“The elements of a crime are more than just something really bad happened… Something bad did happen, something very bad did happen, but the DA has to prove something more than that, and something much more specific than that,” she said.
