The New Jersey man charged with stabbing 바카라The Satanic Verses바카라 author Salman Rushdie is allowed to seek material related to Rushdie바카라s upcoming memoir about the attack before standing trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Jury selection in Hadi Matar바카라s attempted murder and assault trial was originally scheduled to start Jan. 8.
Instead, the trial is on hold, since Matar바카라s lawyer argued Tuesday that the defendant is entitled by law to see the manuscript, due out in April 2024, and related material before standing trial. Written or recorded statements about the attack made by any witness are considered potential evidence, attorneys said.
바카라It will not change the ultimate outcome,바카라 Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said of the postponement. A new date has not yet been set.
Matar, 26, who lived in Fairview, New Jersey, has been held without bail since prosecutors said he stabbed Rushdie more than a dozen times after rushing the stage at the Chautauqua Institution where the author was about to speak in August 2022.
Rushdie, 75, was and his left hand was damaged in the attack. The author announced in Oct. 2023 that he had written about the attack in a 바카라Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.바카라
With trial preparations under way at the time, the prosecutor said he requested a copy of the manuscript as part of the legal discovery process. The request, he said, was declined by Rushdie바카라s representatives, who cited intellectual property rights.
Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone is expected to subpoena the material.
Rushdie바카라s literary agent did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Penguin Random House, the book바카라s publisher, also didn바카라t immediately respond to request for comment.
The prosecution on Tuesday downplayed the book바카라s significance to the trial, noting the attack was witnessed 바카라 and in some cases recorded 바카라 by a large, live audience.
Onstage with Rushdie at the western New York venue was Henry Reese 바카라 73, the co-founder of Pittsburgh바카라s City of Asylum 바카라 who suffered a gash to his forehead.
Rushdie, who could testify at the trial, spent years in hiding after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah , calling for his death after publication of the novel 바카라The Satanic Verses,바카라 which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Over the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely.
A motive for the 2022 attack has not been disclosed. Matar, in a jailhouse after his arrest, praised Khomeini and said Rushdie 바카라attacked Islam.바카라
