Rushdie attack suspect says he admires Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini

The man who allegedly stabbed author Salman Rushdie has said that he admires Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

The man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie said he respected Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini but would not say if he was inspired by a fatwa issued by the former Iranian leader, according to a New York Post interview published on Wednesday (Aug 17).

Hadi Matar also told the Post he had only "read a couple pages" of Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses and that a tweet in the winter announcing the author's visit to the Chautauqua Institution gave him the idea of going there.