The lawyer for Hadi Matar, 24, a Lebanese-American, filed the petition on his behalf during a court hearing.
Matar appeared in court wearing a black and white jacket and a white mask, with his hands tied in front of him, according to the Associated Press.
Matar, from Fairview, New Jersey, was charged with assaulting Rushdie on Friday, as the novelist was preparing to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institute in New York.
On Saturday, prosecutors said Matar had been charged with attempted murder and assault.
“The person responsible for yesterday’s attack, Hadi Matar, has been formally charged with attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault,” Chautauqua County Prosecutor Jason Schmidt said in a statement.
“These charges were filed last night and he is being held without bail,” he added.
Salman Rushdie, 75, who was born in India, was seriously injured in the attack and is still being treated in a hospital.
After an hours-long surgery, Rushdie was placed on a ventilator and was unable to speak until Friday evening, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wiley, according to Reuters.
Wiley said in an email that Rushdie is likely to lose one of his eyes, nerves in his arm have been damaged and he has suffered liver injuries.
Wiley did not respond to messages seeking updates on Rushdie’s health on Saturday, but the New York Times, citing Wiley, reported that Rushdie had begun to speak.
Suspect arrested
Neither local nor federal authorities provided any additional details about the investigation on Saturday. Police said on Friday they had not yet identified a motive for the attack.
NBC New York reported that an initial law enforcement review of Matar’s social media accounts showed he had extremist tendencies and expressed sympathy for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, although no specific links were found between them.
NBC New York said in its report that Matar was born in California and recently moved to New Jersey, adding that security forces found with him a false driver’s license in the name of Hassan Mughniyeh.
He was arrested at the scene by a state policeman after he was thrown to the ground by members of the public.
Witnesses said the accused did not speak as he attacked the novelist. The New York Times reported that prosecutors said during Matar’s indictment that Rushdie had received 10 stab wounds.
And NBC New York reported that on Friday evening, FBI agents went to their last listed address in Fairview, an area of Bergen County on the other side of the Hudson River from Manhattan.
The New York Police Department declined to comment on the report, while the New Jersey police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Hadi Matar’s origins
Ali Tahfeh, mayor of Yaroun in southern Lebanon, said the suspect is the son of a resident of the town, adding that the suspect’s parents immigrated to the United States, where he was born and raised.
Asked whether the suspect or his parents belonged to or supported the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, Tuhfa said he had “absolutely no information” about their political views.
A Hezbollah official told Reuters on Saturday that the Lebanese armed group had no further information about the attack on Rushdie, for which Iran had offered a reward for whoever killed him based on a fatwa issued by Iranian leader Khomeini in 1989.
Global condemnation of the assault
The attack was condemned by writers and politicians from around the world as an attack on freedom of expression.
US President Joe Biden praised the ideals embodied by Rushdie and his work, saying, “Truth. Courage. Flexibility. The ability to exchange ideas without fear.. These are the essential features of any free and open society.”
In Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Saturday that he “strongly” condemned the attack on novelist Salman Rushdie.
“International rejection of such criminal acts that violate fundamental rights and freedoms is the only way towards a better and more peaceful world,” Borrell said in a tweet on Twitter.
In Ottawa, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that the attack on Rushdie was a blow to freedom of expression.
“No one should be threatened or harmed based on what they write. I wish them a speedy recovery,” he wrote on Twitter.
In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron announced, on Friday, his solidarity with the writer Salman Rushdie, stressing, “Today we are with him more than ever,” as reported by AFP.
“For 33 years, Salman Rushdie has embodied freedom and the fight against obscurantism,” Macron wrote on Twitter. “His struggle is our struggle, a global struggle. Today, we stand by his side more than ever.”
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