Suspect charged as Salman Rushdie remains on ventilator after being stabbed on stage

The man suspected of stabbing Sir Salman Rushdie was charged with attempted murder and assault yesterday.

Hadi Matar, 24, was remanded in custody without bail after the author was stabbed up to 15 times on stage at a literary event in the US. The Indian-born British author, 75, is on a ventilator and may lose an eye and has sustained nerve damage to his arm and damage to his liver following the attack on Friday. Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was about to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution, 65 miles from Buffalo in New York state, when he was attacked.

His agent Andrew Wylie said he is on a ventilator and unable to speak. He will “likely lose one eye” while nerves in his arm were severed and his liver was “stabbed and damaged”.

The attack provoked shock and condemnation around the world as politicians and other leading literary figures spoke of their outrage and of the need to defend free speech. The Edinburgh International Book Festival, where Rushdie has appeared several times, opened yesterday when authors were invited to begin events with a line from his books.

Festival director Nick Barley said: “We won’t be intimidated by those who would use violence rather than words.”