TASS, August 13. Salman Rushdie, a celebrated writer and winner of the world’s top literary prizes, who was attacked on Friday before his lecture in New York state, is hooked up to a ventilator, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing a statement from the writer's agent Andrew Wylie.
"The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged," the agency quoted Wylie as saying.
On Friday morning, an unidentified man stabbed Rushdie as the writer was preparing to give a lecture on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State. The novelist is receiving medical treatment.
His assailant was apprehended at the scene. Police later identified him. It turned out to be 24-year-old New Jersey resident Hadi Matar.
The British writer has been living under a death threat for more than 30 yearsafter Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, issued a fatwa, or an edict calling for Rushdie’s death, for his 1988 book The Satanic Verses, which was viewed by many Muslims as sacreligious. He spent years under Britain’s protection before Iran tacitly guaranteed his security. In 2002, the British government received tacit security guarantees from Iran for the writer, and the guards were removed. He has been living in the United States since 2000 and was granted American citizenship in 2016.