Salman Rushdie, the stabbed novelist, has been taken off a ventilator and is conscious and able to talk, according to his agency.
Rushdie, 75, was taken to the hospital on Friday after being attacked on stage during a conference near Buffalo, New York. The author was stabbed up to 15 times by his assailant, who ascended the stage in front of hundreds of people to attack Rushdie.
Rushdie’s representative had earlier warned the media that his client was in severe condition, that he was likely to lose an eye, and that he had also suffered arm and liver damage.
Following the publishing of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988, which some thought anti-Islamic and blasphemous, the author has faced threats to his life for decades.
After Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against the author, with a multi-million dollar bounty on his head, he was compelled to go into hiding for several years.
Meanwhile, the man who stabbed Rushdie has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault. He was arraigned Friday night at New York’s Chautauqua County Jail.
The press was prohibited from the court, when Hadi Matar, the suspect, was held without bail after pleading not guilty.
