Salman Rushdie attacked in New York. File photoNEW YORK, Aug 13Hadi Matar, who attacked British writer Salman Rushdie on Friday in New York State, has been taken into custody without bail, Chatokua County Attorney Jason Schmidt said. He indicated that Matar was formally charged with attempted second-degree murder. Matar was issued, Mr. Matar was taken into custody … without the right to post bail,» Schmidt said, quoted by the local portal chautauquatoday.com. On Friday, Rushdie was attacked on the stage of the institute before his performance in New York State. A New York State Police spokesman York City Eugene Staniszewski said at a briefing that Rushdie had been stabbed at least twice in the neck and stomach.The writer's agent said Rushdie was on a ventilator, his liver was damaged, he could not speak, and would most likely lose one eye.
Eyewitnesses said that Rushdie received several injuries. Earlier, NBC News, citing a source, said that Matar, according to preliminary data, sympathized with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, the elite units of the Iranian Armed Forces). An unnamed law enforcement officer told the TV channel that a preliminary check of Matar's social media accounts showed that he was sympathetic to «Shia extremism» and the Iranian IRGC. At the same time, according to the interlocutor of the TV channel, «unequivocal links» of the suspect with the IRGC were not revealed. Rushdie's novel «The Satanic Verses» (1988) caused indignation in the Muslim world, since it was considered anti-Islamic. Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini publicly cursed Rushdie in his fatwa and sentenced him to death. For a long time the writer was forced to hide, his book was banned in a number of countries. 
State governor instructs police to investigate attack on Rushdi
