Salman Rushdie says his life is ‘relatively normal’ 2 weeks before stabbing
- The author, 75, seriously wounded in Friday’s attack, recently talked to a German magazine saying he was worried about threats to US democracy
- Meanwhile, the man suspected of attacking him has been charged with attempted murder and assault, prosecutors said on Saturday
In an interview conducted around two weeks before he was stabbed and seriously wounded by an attacker in New York state, author Salman Rushdie said his life was now “relatively normal”, after having lived in hiding for years because of death threats.
Rushdie talked in the interview with Germany’s Stern magazine about the threats he sees to US democracy. He also called himself an optimist, and noted that the fatwa, a religious edict issued in Iran in 1989 that called on Muslims around the world to kill him for blasphemy, was pronounced long ago.
The interview is due to appear in the magazine on August 18, but Stern released it on Saturday, a day after the attack on Rushdie. The interview was conducted about two weeks ago, the magazine’s editorial office said.
Meanwhile, the man suspected of attacking Rushdie was charged with attempted murder and assault, prosecutors said on Saturday.
“The individual responsible for the attack yesterday, Hadi Matar, has now been formally charged with attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree,” said Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt in a statement.
Rushdie remained hospitalised on Saturday having suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye. He was on a ventilator and unable to speak, his agent Andrew Wylie said on Friday evening. Rushdie was likely to lose the injured eye.