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Author Rushdie (2018 in London)
Photo: Matt Crossick / dpa
After the knife attack on Salman Rushdie, the British-Indian author is doing better, according to information from those around him.
"Despite his serious and life-changing injuries, his usual fierce and defiant sense of humor is intact," his son Zafar Rushdie tweeted Sunday.
The condition of the 75-year-old is still serious.
But he was no longer connected to a ventilator and an additional oxygen supply.
He was also able to speak a few words.
Salman Rushdie was attacked on Friday at an event in Chautauqua, in western New York State.
A few minutes earlier he had taken the stage to speak about persecuted artists.
A long "road to recovery" has begun for Rushdie, his agent Andrew Wylie said in a statement to the Washington Post on Sunday.
"The injuries are serious, but his condition is going in the right direction." Immediately after the crime, Wylie reported that the writer had been seriously injured: nerves had been severed and the liver had been stabbed.
Rushdie might lose an eye.
The suspect was charged with attempted murder and assault, according to prosecutors.
The 24-year-old is therefore in custody.
He pleaded not guilty in court.
There was no further information on a motive for the crime.
Blinken criticizes Iran
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Iranian state media were "gleefully delighted" at the attack.
That was despicable, the statement said.
Rushdie is not just a "literary giant";
he has also consistently championed the universal rights to freedom of expression, religion and belief, and freedom of the press.
Rushdie has been persecuted by religious fanatics for decades.
The then Iranian revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, had called for the author to be killed because of his work »The Satanic Verses« from 1988.
He accused Rushdie of insulting Islam, the Prophet and the Koran in his novel.
The death sentence was followed by Rushdie's dramatic escape and years of hiding.
He has lived in New York for more than 20 years.
aar/dpa/AFP