Man accused of attempting to assassinate writer Salman Rushdie in New York he didn’t like it for having “attacked Islam” but denied being in contact with Iran or having read his entire book “The Satanic Verses”as he stated in an interview with TI have the New York Post Posted this Wednesday.
The 75-year-old writer, against whom Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his assassination in 1989, was stabbed 10 times during a public literary event by Hadi Matar 24 years old, born in the United States and considered by Islamic radicalism experts to be a sympathizer of Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
In the short interview The New York Post the defendant, who is incarcerated in a prison in Chautauqua (New York state), expressed surprised that Rushdie survived his attack and he avoided, on the advice of his lawyer, to declare whether he had been inspired by the Ayatollah fatwa, while expressing his sympathy for the former Iranian leader.
“I respect Ayatollah. I think he is a great person. That’s all I will say on the matter,” said the prisoner, who denied having any contact with Iran or the hard wing of the regime.
Source: Clarin