Novelist Salman Rushdie testified about a graphic knife attack that left him partially blind in one eye and with permanent damage to his hand. Rushdie, wearing a dark suit and tinted glasses, described the frenzied assault at a literary gathering in August 2022.
Rushdie told jurors he saw the attacker, Hadi M., “at the last minute” and initially thought they were punching him. However, after seeing blood on his clothes, he realized it was a knife attack. The author stated that there is “no vision in the eye at all,” referring to his severely injured right eye.
Prosecutor Jason Schmidt described the attack as swift and sudden, stating Hadi M. plunged the knife into Rushdie multiple times with speed. The attack occurred when the attacker bounded up a staircase and ran towards Rushdie, coming close enough to sever the optical nerve in his right eye.
Rushdie has been too shaken to fight back during the trial, and the accused attacker has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault.
Source: https://www.dw.com/en/salman-rushdie-testimony-describes-attack-in-graphic-detail/a-71576173