Judge denies bail for Rushdie’s attacker, bars interviews

By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A judge has refused to grant bail to the man accused of trying to kill Salman Rushdie as the acclaimed author prepared to give a talk in western New York. Hadi Matar appeared in a western New York courtroom after a grand jury indicted him on charges that he rushed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stabbed Rushdie multiple times. During the court hearing, public defender Nathaniel Barone asked the judge to do something to stop reporters from trying to contact Matar at the jail. The lawyer said the jail had received “several hundred phone calls.”