AFP

The perpetrator of the attack on Salman Rushdie, a young American of Lebanese origin, appeared before a judge in New York State, where he pleaded not guilty to the charge of "attempting to kill" the British writer, who is still in danger in hospital, but he managed to utter a few words on Saturday evening. Salman Rushdie was stabbed ten times on Friday in an attack that sparked a wave of outrage in the West, which was praised by extremists in Iran and Pakistan. Salman Rushdie had been threatened with death since the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa to shed his blood in 1989 because of his novel The Satanic Verses. Hadi Matar, 24, dressed in a prisoner's suit and wearing a mask, appeared in a procedural session before the Chutokua court, where he is being prosecuted for "attempted murder and assault", and he did not say a word, according to the New York Times and photos published by the local press. - Premeditated attack - Prosecutors considered that the attack on the writer on Friday at a cultural center in Chutokua, where he was going to give a lecture, had previously been imagined. The attacker stabbed the 75-year-old writer at least 10 times in the neck and abdomen. The suspect, who is based in New Jersey, has pleaded his innocence through his attorney and will appear again in court on August 19. On Saturday, no information was released from the authorities and relatives of Salman Rushdie about the health status of the Briton, who obtained American citizenship, after he was urgently transferred Friday to a hospital, where he was connected to a respirator in Arieh, Pennsylvania, on the shore of the lake that separates the United States and Canada. However, his agent, Andrew Wiley, told the New York Times only that the writer spoke on Saturday evening without clarifying whether he was still on artificial respiration, after he reported to the newspaper on Friday evening that "Salman will likely lose one of his eyes, his arm nerves have been cut, and his liver has been stabbed and damaged." . The attack sparked a severe shock, especially in the West, where US President Joe Biden condemned the "vicious attack," praising the writer for his "rejection of intimidation and silencing." A normal life in New York - Salman Rushdie has lived for twenty years in New York, where he has regained a semi-normal life out of sight, continuing to defend in his books the right to cynicism and disrespect for religions. The German magazine "Stern" had interviewed him days before the attack in New York, in which he said, "Since I started living in the United States, I have no problems (...) my life has returned to normal," expressing his "optimism" despite the "daily death threats." According to extracts published by the magazine, the full interview will be published on August 18. The "fatwa" against the writer was not canceled, and many of the novel's translators were targeted by attacks, some of whom were injured and killed, such as the Japanese Hitoshi Igarashi, who was stabbed in 1991. In the United States, Amazon recorded an increase in orders for "The Satanic Verses" while the New York Strand Bookstore told AFP that "people come to see what he wrote and inquire what we have" in stock. "(Salman Rushdie's) struggle is our struggle, and it is a global struggle," French President Emmanuel Macron announced Friday, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the "horrific" attack. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday condemned the "cowardly attack" and "insulting freedom of expression". "Nothing justifies a fatwa, nothing justifies a death sentence," wrote the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which was targeted by an Islamist attack that executed nearly all of its editorial staff in 2015. - Welcome to Iran and Pakistan - In southern Lebanon, Ali Qassem Tuhfa, the mayor of Yaroun village, told AFP that Hadi Matar was "of Lebanese origin," adding that "he was born and raised in the United States, and his father and mother are from Yaroun." In Iran, the hard-line conservative newspaper Kayhan on Saturday congratulated the attacker and wrote, "Congratulations to this brave man who is aware of duty, who attacked the apostate and villain Salman Rushdie." And she added, "Let's kiss the hand of the one who slashed the neck of the enemy of God with a knife."