Knife came 'a millimetre from my brain': Salman Rushdie testifies at attacker's terrorism trial

Sir Salman Rushdie has testified at the terrorism trial of the man convicted of trying to kill him. 

The British-Indian author told jurors about the moment he was attacked by Hadi Matar, 28, who is facing terrorism charges after being found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison last year.

It was the second time Rushdie described the incident in court, after giving evidence against Matar - who has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges - during the 2025 trial.

The 79-year-old was blinded in one eye, suffered a severely damaged hand, and spent months recovering following the incident, which took place while the award-winning writer was on stage at an event in New York in 2022.

Rushdie, who spent most of the 1990s in hiding in the UK after receiving death threats over his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, was stabbed about 15 times.

On Thursday, he told the court in Buffalo, New York, he recalled feeling what he thought was a punch under his chin, then feeling blood coming from his neck.

He said: "I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me.

"It was an enormous and expansive lake of blood."

Rushdie, who at one point removed his glasses to show his now sightless right eye, said knife came "a millimetre from my brain".

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Defendant faces potential life sentence

Matar faces a potential life sentence if convicted of federal charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism.

However, his defence has argued that his intent or mindset at the time of the attack cannot be proved - a key element in the prosecutors' claim that it was an act of terrorism motivated by an allegiance to Iran's government.

In 1989, Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa - or religious edict - calling for Rushdie to be killed over The Satanic Verses, which which some Muslims consider blasphemous.

Iran's government has denied involvement in the 2022 stabbing, but the country's then foreign ministry spokesperson suggested Rushdie invited trouble by insulting Islam.

Asked in court if he had anticipated blowback from the book, Rushdie said "probably, but I don't believe the book to be on trial here. I believe someone else is on trial" - a comment the judge struck from the court transcript.

(c) Sky News 2026: Knife came 'a millimetre from my brain': Salman Rushdie testifies at attacker's terrorism trial