New York, Feb 04 (V7N) — More than two years after author Salman Rushdie was brutally attacked on stage at a literary event, the man accused of stabbing him goes on trial Tuesday in New York for attempted murder.

Hadi Matar, 27, faces state-level charges of attempted murder and assault in Chautauqua County Court. Separately, he has been charged federally with terrorism for allegedly carrying out the attack on behalf of the militant group Hezbollah, according to U.S. prosecutors.

The August 2022 stabbing left Rushdie blind in one eye, after he was repeatedly knifed in the neck and abdomen as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit arts and education center in upstate New York.

Rushdie, now 77, had lived under the shadow of death threats since 1989, when Iran’s then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his killing over his novel "The Satanic Verses."

Iran denied any direct involvement in the attack but maintained that Rushdie himself was to blame.

Rushdie, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had lived in hiding for nearly a decade after the fatwa. But in recent years, he led a more open life in New York City, believing the danger had passed.

That changed on August 12, 2022.

As Rushdie took the stage, a man rushed toward him, brandishing a knife, stabbing him nearly 10 times before being subdued by attendees and security guards.

The author later described the attack in his 2023 memoir, "Knife", recalling his feelings of helplessness in the moment.

"Why didn't I fight? Why didn't I run?" he wrote. "I just stood there like a piñata and let him smash me."

Before the attack, Rushdie had a disturbing dream—one he dismissed at the time.

"Two days before the event, I dreamed I was in a Roman amphitheater, being attacked by a gladiator with a spear," he told CBS. "And then I thought, 'Don't be silly. It's a dream.'"

Matar, an American of Lebanese descent, later told the New York Post that he had only read two pages of The Satanic Verses but believed Rushdie had "attacked Islam."

Federal investigators say Matar had online ties to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group that endorsed Khomeini’s fatwa against Rushdie. The FBI has said that Matar traveled to the Chautauqua Institution intending to carry out the attack.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Despite the life-altering injuries, Rushdie has remained defiant about his work.

"I am proud of the work I've done, and that very much includes The Satanic Verses," he wrote in Knife. "If anyone's looking for remorse, you can stop reading right here."

His trial will be closely watched, not only as a legal proceeding but as a symbol of the ongoing dangers faced by writers and free speech advocates worldwide.

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