Salman Rushdie attacker trial live: Hadi Matar goes on trial

A man accused of attempting to murder Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie will go on trial in New York this morning.

Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old from New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault, which carry a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.

Sir Salman is expected in court this week to face his alleged attacker, two years after he was stabbed more than a dozen times onstage before he was due to deliver a lecture, leaving him blind in one eye.

It came more than three decades after Ayatollah Khomeini, the former Iranian supreme leader, issued a fatwa calling for Sir Salman’s execution for The Satanic Verses and placed a multi-million dollar bounty on his head.

Mr Matar’s lawyer has previously told The Telegraph that his client cannot receive a fair trial because there are no Muslims in the jury pool.