The radical accused of stabbing famed writer Salman Rushdie in upstate New York two years ago ambled into court Tuesday, police escort in tow, as his trial kicked off with jury selection.
Hati Matar, a 26-year-old from New Jersey who allegedly nearly killed Rushdie, wore a blue button-up shirt, black pants — and handcuffs — as he entered the courtroom in tiny Mayville to a symphony of snapping cameras before sitting with his lawyers.
Judge David Foley told the court that once the jury is chosen, the trial should last a week to 10 days.
Prosecutors said Rushdie, the author of “Satanic Verses,” will take the stand against his alleged knifer, who is accused of rushing the stage and stabbing him at least 10 times during a literary seminar at the local Chautauqua Institution in August 2022.
The 77-year-old novelist was left blind in one eye and suffered nerve and liver damage. The event moderator, Henry Reese, was also wounded.
Matar, who has been locked up without bail since his arest, pleaded not guilty to attempted-murder and assault charges.
He seemed unapologetic in an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Post days after the vicious attack.
“I don’t think he’s a very good person. I don’t like him,” Matar said of Rushdie at the time. “He’s someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.”
Rushdie had gone into hiding after late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini put a $3 million bounty on his head in 1989 over his tome “The Satanic Verses,” which Muslims claim is blasphemous and disparages the Prophet Mohammed.
Rushdie emerged from his self-imposed exile in the 1990s and has since appeared at speaking engagements around the world.
Mata’s trial involving the 2022 attack on Rushdie at one of those events has been delayed twice already, and the suspect previously turned down a plea deal for a 20-to-life state prison sentence, down from the possible 25 years.
Matar — an American-born man with dual Lebanese citizenship — has insisted he acted alone and only read “like two pages” of the controversial Rushdie novel.
He is also facing separate federal terrorism charges in US District Court in Buffalo, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
A year after the near-fatal assault, Rushdie wrote, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” — and said he was lucky to have survived.
