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Following the news yesterday that the US trial of the man charged with stabbing writer Salman Rushdie in 2022 could be delayed, it has been confirmed that Hadi Matar’s attempted murder and assault trial has now been postponed.

A judge has ruled that Matar is allowed to seek material related to Rushdie’s upcoming memoir about the attack before standing trial.

Jury selection in Matar’s trial was originally scheduled to start on 8 January. Instead, the trial is on hold, since Matar’s lawyer argued that the defendant is entitled by law to see the manuscript, due out in April 2024, and related material before standing trial.

Written or recorded statements about the attack made by any witness are considered potential evidence, attorneys said.

“It will not change the ultimate outcome,” Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said of the postponement.

A new date has not yet been set.

Matar, 26, who lived in Fairview, New Jersey, has been held without bail since prosecutors said he stabbed Rushdie more than a dozen times after rushing the stage at the Chautauqua Institution where the author was about to speak in August 2022.

Rushdie, 76, was blinded in his right eye and his left hand was damaged in the attack. The author announced last year that he had written about the attack in a forthcoming memoir: “ Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. ” 

With trial preparations under way at the time, the prosecutor said he requested a copy of the manuscript as part of the legal discovery process. The request, he said, was declined by Rushdie’s representatives, who cited intellectual property rights.

Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone is expected to subpoena the material.

Penguin Random House, Rushdie’s publisher, and a representative for the author have yet to make any official statements. 

“Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” will be published on 16 April.

Rushdie was one of Euronews Culture’s People of the Year 2023 – the eight figures who impacted, influenced and defined a year in European and Global Culture.

We said: “Known the world over for his exceptional writing and advocating on free speech, his 2023 comeback after such a traumatic ordeal showed, once again, Rushdie’s resilience in the face of violent adversity, standing up against those that threaten to censor creative voices.”