The man accused of stabbing “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie has been indicted by a grand jury, according to the Chautauqua County District Attorney’s Office.
The district attorney’s office did not provide any details on the charges.
The suspect, 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, is scheduled to appear in Chautauqua County Court on Thursday for an arraignment, a spokeswoman for the court said.
Matar was arrested Aug. 12 after he rushed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stabbed Rushdie several times, shocking the audience.
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He was charged with second-degree attempted murder the next day, and his court-appointed lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Rushdie, 75, was receiving treatment in a Pennsylvania hospital for serious injuries, according to The Associated Press.
Andre Wylie, Rushdie’s literary agent, told the AP that the author is on “the road to recovery” but has a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm.
Rushdie could lose an eye, Wylie told the AP.
Rushdie’s life has been under threat since the 1988 publication of “The Satanic Verses,” a novel that features a character inspired by the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The book provoked intense backlash in much of the Muslim world, drawing accusations of blasphemy.
The following year, Iranian Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for the death of Rushdie and his publishers.
Rushdie was the target of failed assassination attempts. He was forced to go into hiding under the protection of the British government.
He later recounted the harrowing ordeal in a memoir, “Joseph Anton,” published in 2012. The title came from the pseudonym he used while he was living underground.
Rushdie is one of the most acclaimed novelists in contemporary literature, celebrated for his provocative mix of magical realism and historical allegory.
He was at the Chautauqua Institution to give a talk about protections for writers in exile and the importance of free speech.
In the days since the attack, sales of “The Satanic Verses” have surged on Amazon and other online book retailers. The novel is Amazon’s No. 8 most-sold book of the week.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
