A "great person" was the Iranian Ayatollah Khomenei, for whom he has great respect, said Hadi Matar in an interview from prison.

The 24-year-old American is said to have attacked the writer Salman Rushdie with a knife last Friday.

Khomeni had issued a "fatwa" against Rushdie in 1989 - an incitement to murder all Muslims that made Rushdie a hunted man who had to spend a decade under British police protection.

He had published The Satanic Verses, a very successful book in which even progressive Muslims would have recognized a blasphemous quality.

Even if a new Iranian government declared ten years later that the "fatwa" would not be implemented, it remained in force and in the minds of many people.

He pleads not guilty

Matar attacked Rushdie with a knife last Friday before his lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York.

The 75-year-old writer survived with serious injuries.

His liver, an arm and an eye were damaged.

Rushdie could lose an eye, it was said.

He is now on the mend, Rushdie's son Zafar and his management said.

On Thursday, Matar not only spoke to journalists, he also appeared before the magistrate in Mayville, New York.

The defendant pleaded not guilty before his public defender made efforts to secure some favors.

Earlier, a grand jury decided to charge Matar with attempted murder.

The alleged assassin lives in New Jersey and has not previously had a criminal record.

He was born in California and is the son of Lebanese immigrants.

Their former village Jaroun is said to be a Hezbollah stronghold, according to reports.

Matar's father locked himself in there and is currently refusing to speak to reporters, it said.

Mother breaks up with her son

According to American media reports, Matar's mother has already broken away from him.

Silvana Fardos described her son as a young man who spent more and more time in his room.

After a trip to the Middle East to visit his father, Matar changed a lot.

"I expected him to come back motivated, finish school, graduate and get a job.

Instead, he locked himself in the basement," said the mother of the British "Daily Mail".

Fardos said she felt sorry for Rushdie and his family after the assassination.

She will no longer speak to her son.

Matar is fully responsible for his own actions.

Fardos said she did not raise her son to extreme religious ideas.

Referring to the "fatwa" that Matar may have encouraged the assassination,

she said, "I don't know anyone in Iran, my whole family is here." Some observers noted that Matar thus comes from a fairly typical Muslim American family, whose members identify primarily as Americans, and which are not actually a particularly favorable environment for Islamists offer radicalization.

In many cases where this does occur, travel to predominantly Islamic countries seems to play a major role.

No release on bail

In an interview with the New York Post tabloid, Matar said he didn't like Salman Rushdie because he attacked Islam and "our beliefs."

However, he only read a few pages of the “Satanic Verses”.

When Matar read about Rushdie's planned appearance online, he decided to take the opportunity to attack the author.

Matar also said he was surprised Rushdie survived the assassination.

The magistrate has since refused to release the accused on bail pending his hearing.

Matar's attorney had argued that the alleged assassin had no criminal record, but Judge David Foley disagreed.

Matar's public defender also asked Foley to do something about the many contact attempts by journalists - his client received hundreds of calls from the media.

Reporting could lead to a biased jury.

The judge did not take any restrictive measures - he only warned those involved in the proceedings to stop giving interviews.