A man injured alongside author Salman Rushdie in a knife attack on a New York lecture stage told jurors that he tried to stop the assault once he realized it wasn't a prank and was left with a gash above his eye.

Hadi Matar is charged with attempted murder in the attack, which took place in 2022 as Mr. Rushdie was about to speak at an arts conference in western New York.

The novelist Salman Rushdie showed a jury his blinded right eye on Tuesday as he testified against the man charged with trying to murder him at a talk at a rural New York venue in 2022.

Author Salman Rushdie has taken the stand in a New York courtroom to testify against the man charged with stabbing him in a frenzied knife attack.

During cross-examination, the defense questioned whether Reese was certain he had been stabbed or if he could have been punched instead. Reese admitted he was unsure.

It occurred to me quite clearly that I was dying,” Rushdie said on Tuesday. “That was my predominant thought.”

Salman Rushdie spoke calmly and with occasional dry humor as he testified on Tuesday against the man accused of trying to murder him, the first time the two have been in the same place since the 2022 knife attack on the novelist onstage at a New York arts institute.

Day two of the trial of Hadi Matar began with author Salman Rushdie taking the stand as the first witness of the day. As the most notable witness in the trial, his testimony drew a packed courtroom with heightened security.

Renowned British-Indian author Salman Rushdie testified Tuesday in the trial of the man accused of attempting to kill him in 2022 in New York.