The American accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie said in an interview on Wednesday that he was "
surprised
" that the author of The
Satanic Verses
survived the attack, perpetrated Friday at a conference in New York State.
“
When I heard he survived, I was surprised
,” Hadi Matar told the
New York Post
, which says he contacted him in prison.
The suspect, arrested immediately after the attack, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder on Saturday and is due to appear in court again on Friday.
Hadi Matar, 24, did not say whether he was inspired by the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 from Iran calling for the death of the author of the
Satanic Verses
, deemed blasphemous.
“
I have esteem for the Ayatollah.
I think he's a remarkable person.
That's all I would say about it
, "he assured the New York tabloid, which writes that Hadi Matar's lawyers advised him not to talk about this subject.
" Hypocritical
"
Rushdie
Hadi Matar told the newspaper that he had read "
a few pages
" of Salman Rushdie's novel.
The 75-year-old British author, stabbed a dozen times and evacuated by helicopter to a hospital, was briefly placed on a ventilator before his condition improved.
“
The road to recovery has begun
,” his agent said on Sunday.
“
I don't like this person.
I don't think he's a good man
,” the suspect told the
New York Post
about the intellectual.
“
I don't like him, I really don't like him.
»
“
He is someone who attacked Islam
,” he added.
Watching videos of the author on YouTube, he found him "
hypocritical
", he continued.
He said he was not in contact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and learned of Salman Rushdie's presence at a conference at a cultural center in Chautauqua, in upstate New York, via Twitter.
Originally from the state of New Jersey, he told the American media that he took the bus to the city of Buffalo, then a Lyft – competitor of Uber and taxis – to get to Chautauqua.
Read alsoAttempted assassination of Salman Rushdie: the ambiguities of the Iranian regime
"
I wasn't doing anything in particular, just wandering around
," he said, "
I was just outside all the time
."
As Salman Rushdie took the stage in an amphitheater, a man rushed to the stage before stabbing him several times, including in the neck and abdomen.
Hadi Matar returned "
changed " and more religious from a 2018 trip to Lebanon, his family's country of origin, his mother told the
Daily Mail
website on Monday
.
