When asked if Matar or his parents were affiliated with or supported Hezbollah, Tehfe said he had “no information at all” on the political views of the parents or Matar as they lived abroad.Ī bloodied Rushdie, 75, was flown to a hospital and underwent surgery late Friday. Matar and his family hails from the south Lebanon town of Yaroun, said its Mayor Ali Tehfe. Tehfe said Matar’s parents emigrated to the United States and Matar was born and raised there. He was charged on Saturday with attempted murder and assault. The suspected attacker was identified by police as Hadi Matar, 24, from New Jersey. He had a bounty on his head offering more than $3m to anyone who killed him. Hezbollah is supported by Iran, whose previous supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, pronounced a religious decree in 1988 calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie for blasphemy over his book The Satanic Verses. “We don’t know anything about this subject, so we will not comment,” the official told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity. Mixed reactions to author Salman Rushdie’s attack came out of the Middle East as he fought for his life on a ventilator in New York.Īn official from Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Saturday it had no additional information on the stabbing.
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