{"id":41677,"date":"2024-07-24T17:47:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T17:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/salman-rushdie-attacker-charged-with-supporting-militant-group-hezbollah\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T17:47:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T17:47:00","slug":"salman-rushdie-attacker-charged-with-supporting-militant-group-hezbollah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=41677","title":{"rendered":"Salman Rushdie attacker charged with supporting militant group Hezbollah"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mr Matar’s lawyer, Nathaniel Barone, told the BBC his client plans to plead not guilty to the new charges. <\/p>\n
“We plan on zealously and feverishly defending him on these matters,” Mr Barone said, adding that his client maintains his innocence on all the charges brought against him. <\/p>\n
He has been held without bail since the attack. <\/p>\n
The indictment said Mr Matar attempted to provide “material support and resources” to Hezbollah, knowing it was a terrorist organization, but the document did not detail what evidence connected him to the group. <\/p>\n
Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organisation by Western states, Israel, Gulf Arab countries and the Arab League.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear exactly why the 26-year-old New Jersey resident attacked the famed British author, though he told, external<\/span> the New York Post, in an interview from jail, that he had watched videos of Sir Salman on YouTube. “I don’t like people who are disingenuous like that.”<\/p>\n
In an interview with the BBC earlier this year, Sir Salman recalled Mr Matar “sprinting up the stairs” and stabbing him 12 times. <\/p>\n
“I couldn’t have fought him,” he said of the attack that lasted 27 seconds. “I couldn’t have run away from him.”<\/p>\n
The attack left him in hospital for six weeks recovering from his injuries. <\/p>\n
Sir Salman’s memoir about the incident “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” was released earlier this year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n