In this file photo taken on September 13, 2016, British writer Salman Rushdie speaks during the opening day of the Positive Economy Forum in Le Havre, northwestern France on September 13, 2016. - It has been reported that Rushdie was attacked on stage during an event in New York. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

After the knife attack on Salman Rushdie, the British-Indian author is said to be on the mend. According to reports, he is no longer artificially ventilated. He was able to speak again on Saturday (local time), the New York Times reported, citing his literary agent Andrew Wylie.

“He’s off the ventilator so the road to recovery has begun,” Wylie wrote in an email to Reuters on Sunday. “It will take a long time, the injuries are serious, but his condition is improving.”

Rushdie’s family said they were “extremely relieved” that the 75-year-old was no longer dependent on a ventilator since Saturday. “Though his life-changing injuries are serious, his usual outspoken and defiant sense of humor remains intact,” his son Zafar Rushdie tweeted.

Hadi Matar, identified as the attacker by police, is in custody and pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Saturday. He is being investigated for second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault.

Second-degree murder is a separate offense in the US legal system for the death of a human being. The 24-year-old Matar can thus be sentenced to years in prison in the US state of New York. There was no further information on a motive for the crime.

Matar’s family apparently comes from a village in southern Lebanon. According to an AFP reporter in the town of Jarun, the parents are said to be divorced. The father still lives there, but he refused contact with journalists. The village chief told AFP Matar was “born and raised in the United States.”

Rushdie continued to be treated at a hospital in Erie, in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania, according to US media on Saturday. But his condition seems to have improved somewhat.

Fellow writer Aatish Taseer wrote on Twitter that Rushdie was joking. However, the tweet was later deleted. Meanwhile, celebrities and politicians from around the world condemned Rushdie’s stabbing attack and wished him a speedy recovery.

Rushdie was attacked on Friday morning (local time) at an event in Chautauqua in western New York. A few minutes earlier he had taken the stage to speak about persecuted artists.

The 75-year-old was operated on in the hospital and put on a ventilator, his agent Wylie told the “New York Times” on Friday evening.

He cannot speak and will likely lose an eye. Nerves in his arm were also severed and his liver damaged.

Rushdie has been persecuted by religious fanatics for decades. The then Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for the author to be killed because of his work “The Satanic Verses” from 1988. He accused Rushdie of insulting Islam, the Prophet and the Koran in his novel.

Numerous politicians condemned the violence against Rushdie and stressed the importance of fundamental rights and freedom of expression. US President Joe Biden commended Rushdie for not being intimidated and for “essential, universal values” such as truth, courage and resilience.

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter: “An international rejection of such criminal acts that violate fundamental rights and freedoms is the only way to a better and more peaceful world.”

Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid also blamed Iran’s leadership for the attack. The incident was “the result of decades of incitement led by the extremist regime in Tehran,” Lapid wrote on Twitter on Saturday night.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) said: “Anyone who justifies this assassination attempt is spreading nothing but hatred and extremism. Anyone who believes in peaceful coexistence must oppose this clearly and consistently.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wrote on Twitter: “What a heinous act!”. He wished the author a lot of strength for the recovery.

The German PEN center in Darmstadt also sharply condemned the attack on the writer. “We are deeply shocked by the attack,” said Secretary General Claudia Guderian on Saturday. The writer has been living “for the freedom of the word” for 30 years now under the threat of death. “There has never been such an attempt on his life before.”

British Harry Potter author Joanne K. Rowling has been threatened online after Rushdie was attacked. Rowling took to Twitter on Friday to express her horror at the violence, writing of Rushdie, “I hope he’s okay.” Another user responded, “Don’t worry, you’re next.” you are next”).

The publicist Günter Wallraff, who claims to have taken Rushdie in because of the fatwa in 1993, condemned the attack as an attempt to intimidate enlighteners and critics of Islam. It was “disgusting” that the Iranian state media celebrated the alleged assassin frenetically, he told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”.

The ultra-conservative Iranian newspaper Kayhan praised the attacker as a “brave man” who “ripped open the neck of the vicious” Rushdie with a knife. Other media in Iran made similar statements. There were also statements of support for the perpetrator in Pakistan.