A judge ordered Mr Matar detained without bail after prosecutors said the suspect was taking steps to deliberately position himself to harm Rushdie by getting an advance payment for the event where the author was speaking and arrived a day early with a fake ID.
“This was a targeted, unprovoked, pre-planned attack on Mr. Rushdie,” said Jason Schmidt, the Chautauqua County District Attorney.
Matar’s lawyer, Nathaniel Barone, complained that authorities had taken too long to get his client before a judge, leaving him “tucked up on a bench in the state police barracks”.
“He has that constitutional right of presumed innocence,” Barone added.
Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and eye, Mr Wylie said Friday night. He would probably lose the injured eye.
The attack was met with shock and outrage by much of the world, along with tributes and praise to the award-winning author who has faced death threats for The Satanic Verses for over 30 years.