MAYVILLE, N.Y.: Author Salman Rushdie does not have to turn over private notes about his stabbing to the man charged with attacking him, a judge ruled Thursday, rejecting the alleged assailant’s contention that he is entitled to the material as he prepares for trial.
Hadi Matar’s lawyers in February subpoenaed Rushdie and publisher Penguin Random House for all source material related to Rushdie’s recently published memoir: “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” which details the 2022 attack at the Chautauqua Institution. Public Defender Nathaniel Barone said the material he sought contained information not available anywhere else.
“You could obtain it from the book,” Chautauqua County Judge David Foley told Barone during arguments Thursday, before ruling the request too broad and burdensome. Additionally, the judge said, Rushdie and the publisher are covered by New York’s Shield law, which protects journalists from being forced to disclose confidential sources or material.
Requiring Rushdie to hand over personal materials “would have the net effect of victimizing Mr. Rushdie a second time,” Elizabeth McNamara, an attorney for Penguin Random House, said in asking that the subpoenas be quashed.
Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to assault and attempted murder after being indicted by a Chautauqua County grand jury shortly after authorities said he rushed the stage and stabbed Rushdie as he was about to address about 1,500 people at an amphitheater at the western New York retreat.
Rushdie, 77, spent years in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for his death due to his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Over the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely.
Also Thursday, the judge rescheduled Matar’s trial from September to October to accommodate Rushdie’s travel schedule, and that of City of Asylum Pittsburgh Director Henry Reese, who was moderating the Chautauqua Institution appearance and was also wounded. Both men are expected to testify.
Jury selection is now scheduled to begin Oct. 15, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
Salman Rushdie’s alleged assailant won’t see author’s private notes before trial
https://arab.news/mqrcy
Salman Rushdie’s alleged assailant won’t see author’s private notes before trial
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
