Police said a man from New Jersey was arrested in connection with Friday’s stabbing of renowned author Salman Rushdie.
According to sources in law enforcement, the suspect sympathized with the Iranian government, which has called for Rushdie’s murder.
According to the New York State Police, Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, was apprehended after storming the stage at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York and allegedly stabbing Rushdie many times.
Police said Rushdie was attacked with a knife and taken to a local hospital on Friday evening for treatment of wounds to his neck and abdomen.
According to The Post, law enforcement sources said an initial inquiry reveals Matar has made social media remarks in support of Iran and its Revolutionary Guard and in support of Shi’a radicalism more generally.
However, the New York State Police stated that Matar’s motivation was still unknown.
Major Eugene J. Staniszewski told reporters, “We don’t have any evidence of a motivation at this moment.” He also said that Matar was likely acting alone.
The incident occurs amid a number of other Iranian conspiracies that have been thwarted in the United States, including an attempt on the life of an Iranian-American journalist in Brooklyn and a plan against former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Since the late 1980s, the Iranian leadership has repeatedly threatened the life of Rushdie, now 75 years old.
