MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Jury selection has begun in the long-awaited trial of Hadi Matar, the New Jersey man accused of attempting to stab controversial author Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York more than two years ago.

What You Need To Know

  • Jury selection in underway in the case against Hadi Matar

  • Matar is charged with attempted murder and assault

  • Matar is accused of stabbing author Salman Rushdie several times 

Matar, 27, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault.

Jury selection wrapped up for the day with five jurors selected out of 12 and four alternates. Both sides spent the day questioning prospective jurors on whether they can be fair and impartial. 

"I think most Chautauqua County residents are sophisticated enough to understand that there are high-profile events that are spoken about on social media, that are covered by the news media. And that they themselves should be completely clear of all those facts so that they can become the trier of fact and the most knowledgeable person as to what actually happened in the case and that's really their job," said Jason Schmidt, Chautauqua County district attorney.

It's a job the public defender's office says will not come easy, arguing there's been too much pre-trial publicity, and a lack of diversity within the jury pool.

Defense attorneys denied a of change of venue last year.

"There's going to be an extremely difficult time in selecting jurors who have not in some way formed an opinion and or have some type of implicit bias towards my client, Mr. Matar," said Ned Barone, Chautauqua County chief public defender.

Matar is accused of stabbing author Salman Rushdie several times and wounding another inside the Institution's Amphitheater in Aug. 2022.

After a number of false starts and delays, both sides relieved to get the trial started.

"For anyone accused of a crime, it's very difficult to sit, especially if you're sitting incarcerated and waiting for trial to begin," said Barone. "It's very, very difficult, so for Mr. Matar, the best thing that could happen at this point is that we move ahead."

"It closes one chapter which represented a very significant stage of the prosecution of this matter, and it opens the final chapter and in this case, it is the trial. But now we move into an altogether different process that is fraught with its own potential perils and pitfalls that we have to try our best to avoid," said Schmidt.

Matar is also facing separate federal charges.

Jury selection will resume Wednesday, with the hope of having it all wrapped up the end of this week, or next.