Author Salman Rushdie took the stand in a New York courtroom Tuesday to testify against the man charged with stabbing him in a frenzied knife attack.“I only saw him at the last minute.,” Rushdie said.

The Satanic Verses author was left blind in one eye after a 24-year-old man allegedly stormed the stage and attacked him at a literary festival in New York

The attacker, Hadi Matar, appeared for his first day of trial and pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault at the Chautauqua County Courthouse.