NEW YORK: The author Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed roughly 10 times on Friday, has been removed from a ventilator and is on the mend, his agent said Sunday.
“The road to recovery has begun,” Andrew Wylie said in a text. “It will be long; the injuries are severe, but his condition is headed in the right direction.”
Mr. Rushdie, who had spent decades under proscription by Iran, was attacked onstage minutes before he was to give a talk at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.
Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey man, was arrested at the scene and charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault with a weapon.
In court Saturday, prosecutors said that the attack on the author was premeditated and targeted. Mr. Matar traveled by bus to the intellectual retreat and purchased a pass that allowed him to attend the talk Mr. Rushdie was to give on Friday morning, according to the prosecutors.
Nathaniel Barone, a public defender, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. Mr. Matar was held without bail, with his next court appearance scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m.
Mr. Rushdie had been put on a ventilator Friday evening after undergoing hours of surgery at a hospital in Erie, Pa. Mr. Wylie said then that Mr. Rushdie might lose an eye, his liver had been damaged and the nerves in his arm were severed.
On Sunday, Mr. Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said his father remained in critical condition and was receiving extensive treatment. –Agencies
