Hadi Matar, the man charged with attacking celebrated author Salman Rushdie, will not be given access to the author's notes before trial, with the judge ruling the request too burdensome. Matar’s trial has be sheduled for October.
ADVERTISEMENTAuthor Salman Rushdie does not have to turn over private notes about his stabbing to Hadi Matar, the man charged with attacking him, a judge ruled yesterday (Thursday 18 July).
The alleged assailant’s contention was that he was entitled to the material as he prepared for trial.
As we reported earlier this year, the trial was postponed and Rushdie's attacker was allowed to seek material related to Rushdie's upcoming memoir about the attack before standing trial. Matar’s lawyers in February subpoenaed Rushdie and publisher Penguin Random House for all source material related to Rushdie’s memoir “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” published in April, which details the 2022 attack at the Chautauqua Institution.
Public Defender Nathaniel Barone said the material he sought contained information not available anywhere else.
“You could obtain it from the book,” Chautauqua County Judge David Foley told Barone during arguments Thursday, before ruling the request too broad and burdensome.
Additionally, the judge said, Rushdie and the publisher are covered by New York’s Shield law, which protects journalists from being forced to disclose confidential sources or material.
Requiring Rushdie to hand over personal materials “would have the net effect of victimizing Mr. Rushdie a second time,” Elizabeth McNamara, an attorney for Penguin Random House, said in asking that the subpoenas be quashed.
Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to assault and attempted murder after being indicted by a Chautauqua County grand jury shortly after authorities said he rushed the stage and stabbed Rushdie as he was about to address about 1,500 people at an amphitheater at the western New York retreat.
The judge also rescheduled Matar’s trial from September to October to accommodate Rushdie’s travel schedule, and that of City of Asylum Pittsburgh Director Henry Reese, who was moderating the Chautauqua Institution appearance and was also wounded. Both men are expected to testify.
Jury selection is now scheduled to begin on 15 October.
Rushdie, 77, spent years in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death due to his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous.
Over the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely.
Rushdie was one of Euronews Culture's People of the Year 2023 - the eight figures who impacted, influenced and defined a year in European and Global Culture. We said: "Known the world over for his exceptional writing and advocating on free speech, his 2023 comeback after such a traumatic ordeal showed, once again, Rushdie’s resilience in the face of violent adversity, standing up against those that threaten to censor creative voices."
