Salman Rushdie testifies in trial for the man charged with stabbing him

WBEN-AM / WBEN

"His testimony was very even tempered, even keeled, very articulate. His memories, even as he acknowledged the traumatic setting of, of what happened."

Transcript

00:00So today, Salman Rushdie testified in the trial of a man who is accused of trying to murder him.

00:07His testimony was very even-tempered, even-keeled, very articulate.

00:12His memories, even as he acknowledged the traumatic setting of what happened,

00:18a couple of times he even found moments to make a joke.

00:23His eye had been stabbed to the point where he can't see out of it anymore,

00:27and he referred to having surgery on that eye in which they had to seal it shut,

00:32and he talked about how painful it was,

00:34and then he kind of smiled and turned to the jury and said,

00:37I don't recommend it.

00:39The cross-examination was very brief.

00:42It was very mild.

00:44The defense attorney even was relatively polite,

00:48at one point even a little bit starstruck.

00:51As much as you could challenge him,

00:53he tried to kind of question whether he really could remember it all very well.

00:58Was he too traumatized to remember it well?

01:01And this is something he kind of pushed back on,

01:04and his memories were quite clear.

01:07If there was something he didn't remember precisely, he would say so.

01:11It should be noted this is the first time that he was in the same room

01:16as the man accused of trying to kill him.

01:19There was no indication of them acknowledging the other.

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