Rushdie attacker pleads not guilty to attempted murder

NEW YORK－The man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie at a literary event pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges on Saturday, as the severely injured author appeared to show signs of improvement in hospital.

Hadi Matar, 24, was arraigned in court in New York state, with prosecutors outlining how Rushdie had been stabbed about 10 times on Friday in what they described as a premeditated assault.

Rushdie, 75, was set to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom at Chautauqua Institution in western New York when, police said, Matar rushed the stage and stabbed the Indian-born writer.

After the on-stage attack, Rushdie was taken by helicopter to hospital and underwent surgery.

His agent Andrew Wylie had said the writer was on a ventilator and in danger of losing an eye, but in an update on Saturday he told the New York Times that Rushdie had started to talk again, suggesting his condition had improved.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday called it a vicious attack and offered prayers for Rushdie's recovery.

Matar is being held without bail and has been charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault with a weapon.

Rushdie moved to New York in the early 2000s and became a US citizen in 2016. Security was not particularly tight at Friday's event at the Chautauqua Institution, which hosts arts programs in a tranquil lakeside community near Buffalo.

Messages flooded in from the literary world, with Rushdie's close friend Ian McEwan calling him an "inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists across the world".

Agencies Via Xinhua