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Rescuers transport Rushdie to Chautauqua after the attack
Photo: @HoratioGates3/EPA
The man suspected of assaulting writer Salman Rushdie on Friday has been charged with attempted murder and assault.
This was announced by the district attorney of Chautauqua County in the state of New York.
Accordingly, the man was accused of these allegations in the evening and taken into custody without bail.
Rushdie was attacked by a 24-year-old on an open stage at a reading in Chautauqua, New York, and was seriously injured with stab wounds in the neck and stomach.
The alleged assassin had a ticket - and apparently "sympathies for Shia extremism".
The horror is great worldwide.
"This act of violence is appalling," National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan said, according to a White House statement.
Everyone in the administration of US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris prayed for the 75-year-old's speedy recovery.
Sullivan also thanked the citizens and responders who "helped Rushdie so quickly after the attack."
Rushdie's The Satanic Verses was banned in Iran in 1988, and many Muslims considered it blasphemous.
Iran's leader at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's killing.
A bounty of more than $3 million has been placed on his head.
A Japanese translator of the work was later actually killed.
Rushdie had to go into hiding and was given police protection.
In a 2015 SPIEGEL interview, Rushdie said: "My fear isn't growing.
There hasn't been a security service for me for 16 years.« And: »If you tell a young person the story of the death threat against me today, it probably sounds like a fairy tale from a bygone era.«
According to information from his publisher last year, the fatwa no longer has any meaning for Rushdie.
He is no longer restricted in his freedom of movement and no longer needs bodyguards.
However, the years of hiding did not leave him untouched.
He processed this time in the autobiography »Joseph Anton« from 2012, which was named after his alias.
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