The tried homicide trial of the person charged with severely injuring writer Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife assault was placed on maintain Friday whereas judges take into account a request to maneuver it to a different county.
Jury choice had been scheduled to start out on Tuesday.
Late Friday, an appellate choose in Rochester halted proceedings till the courtroom guidelines on a movement by Hadi Matar’s legal professional for a change of venue out of Chautauqua County, the place the assault occurred.
The courtroom may rule on the movement as early as Tuesday — the courts are closed Monday — however the trial has been taken off the calendar till additional discover, District Legal professional Jason Schmidt stated.
AP
“It presents one other layer of difficulties and challenges for us,” he stated. “I’m upset.”
Matar’s legal professional, Nathaniel Barone, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Matar has been held with out bail since dashing the stage as Rushdie ready to talk on the Chautauqua Establishment and stabbing him greater than a dozen occasions earlier than being subdued by onlookers.
The “Satanic Verses” writer was left blinded in a single eye. The occasion’s moderator, Henry Reese, was additionally wounded.
Matar has pleaded not responsible to tried homicide and assault.
In a separate indictment, federal authorities allege that Matar was motivated by a terrorist group’s endorsement of a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s loss of life. A separate trial on the federal prices — terrorism transcending nationwide boundaries, offering materials assist to terrorists and making an attempt to supply materials assist to a terrorist group — can be scheduled in U.S. District Court docket in Buffalo.
