Arrested in connection with the attack on Salman Rushdie expresses his admiration for Ayatollah Khomeini but refrains from clarifying whether he was inspired by a religious decree (fatfa) issued by Iran’s former supreme leader in 1989, in an interview published today by the New York Post.

Hadi Mattar says he has read “only a few pages” of Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and claims that a tweet announcing the author’s visit to the Chotoku Foundation gave him the idea to attend the event.

Rushdie, 75, was preparing to give a speech on creative freedom at the New York facility last Friday when, according to police, Mattar, 24, burst onto the stage and punched the Indian-born writer.

Rushdie lived in the spotlight for many years after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988 caused an uproar in the Muslim world when Khomeini issued a fatfa calling for the assassination of the “blasphemous” author.

“I respect the Ayatollah (Khomeini). I think he was a great person. I’m not going to say anything more about this,” Mattar said in a video-recorded interview with the New York Post from the Chatoqua County Jail.

“I don’t really like him,” Mattar later said when asked about Rushdie. “This is the one who attacked Islam, the beliefs of Muslims,” he said, noting that he watched an interview with the author on YouTube.

Hadi Matar denied having contact with the Revolutionary Guards in Iran.

A court-appointed lawyer for Mattar’s defense said he did not know about his client’s interview with an American newspaper. “I did not give anyone permission to contact my client,” Nathaniel Barron told Reuters.

During his court appearance on Saturday, Hadi Mattar pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault on Salman Rushdie, who is in critical condition in the hospital but is said to have escaped the danger.

Source: APE-MPE-Reuters