British writer Salman Rushdie’s agent explained on Sunday that the latter is “recovering,” two days after he was stabbed in the stomach and neck by a Lebanese-American youth during an event in the US.
His agent, Andrew Wylie, said in a statement sent to several media outlets that Rushdie is no longer dependent on respirators and is “starting to recover,” noting that his recovery will take “a long time. His injuries are serious, but his condition is progressing in the right direction.”
Wylie had previously said that Rushdie was at risk of losing one of his eyes and that he suffered a stomach injury.
Today, Sunday, the writer’s son Zafar confirmed that the family was “very happy” that Rushdie gave up his breathing apparatus and was able to “say a few words.”
“While his injuries are serious and could change his life, his usual brash and headstrong sense of humor has not been affected,” Rushdie’s son said in a statement.
The writer, who spent years under police protection after calling on Iranian regime leaders to kill him over his novel The Satanic Verses, was about to give a speech at a New York State Literary Festival Friday when a man took the stage and struck he was stabbed several times in the neck and stomach.
Employees and members of the public arrested the alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Lebanese American, before police took him into custody.
On Saturday, he appeared in court, where he pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
Police and prosecutors have not provided much information about Matar’s background or motives.
In Lebanon, Ali Qasem Tuhfa, the mayor of the village of Yarun in southern Lebanon, has indicated that Hadi Matar is of “Lebanese origin”.
“He was born and raised in the United States and his father and mother are from Yaron,” he told AFP.
An AFP reporter who visited the village on Saturday was told that Matar’s parents were divorced and his father still lives in the village.
Journalists who came to his father’s house were asked to leave.
Salman Rushdie has received death threats since the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a bloodshed fatwa in 1989 for his novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims considered blasphemous.
