MAYVILLE – A trial involving a New Jersey man who attempted to kill a famous author has once again been delayed.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin Tuesday in the case of Hadi Matar, the suspect accused of stabbing award-winning novelist Salman Rushdie in August, 2022 while at Chautauqua Institution.

According to Chautauqua County Public Defender Nathan Barone, his office was informed Friday that his appeal to have the trial delayed has been accepted.

Earlier this week, Barone told The Post-Journal and OBSERVER that he requested a change of venue for the trial, however the Appellate Division was not going to take up the matter until Tuesday, which was the start of jury selection.

Because of this, he had requested a judge on the Appellate Division order a stay for the trial until the Appellate Division makes its ruling regarding the change of venue.

That request was honored Friday, less than two hours after Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt held a virtual press conference regarding the trial. At that press conference, Schmidt said he was waiting to hear if the trial would be delayed, but was moving ahead as if jury selection would begin Tuesday.

Barone’s request for a change of venue focused on finding an impartial jury in Chautauqua County as well as if a jury of Matar’s peers could be found in Chautauqua County.

Matar is of Arab-American descent. Both of his parents are Lebanese. “Given the atmosphere in the country and throughout the world right now, it’s become a very hot topic,” Barone said in an interview earlier this week.

He said he has concerns about “inherent and implicit bias” toward Arab Americans. “There’s a segment of the population that looks at them or hears about them and they form a stereotype,” Barone said.

Barone noted that the Muslim or Arab-American community in Chautauqua County “whether it’s descent or religious belief is non-existent.”

Barone would like to see the trial moved to one of the boroughs of New York City or Erie County, where there is a higher Arab-American population.

By comparison, Schmidt said in an interview earlier this week that he is confident that they can seat an impartial jury. “We understand that Salman Rushdie is an individual who has some degree of notoriety. We understand that Mr. Matar came from outside the community, and as we allege, he committed this act, but I don’t see any of these issues impacting or limiting our ability to find impartial jurors,” he said.

From his perspective, Schmidt is focusing on the crime. “This entire case, as far as the trial presentation is just simply about a stabbing event. … Picking a jury for that is pretty straight forward,” he said.

Rushdie, the victim of the attack, is a world renown author of several books, including “The Satanic Verses,” which was published in 1988. “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since it was published, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous. A year after it was banned, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.

This is the second time the trial has been delayed.

The trial was originally set to begin in January, however Rushdie had authored the book “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” and the defense requested the trial be delayed until they could review the book as well as any notes Rushdie may have written.

Barone’s request to review the notes was rejected in court, however Chautauqua County Judge David Foley agreed to wait until the book was published before holding the trial. The book was released in April.

In July, Matar was invited to plead guilty to second-degree attempted murder and that guilty plea would include federal charges, which at that point had not been filed. Between the local and federal charges, he was looking at a maximum sentence of between 30 and 40 years behind bars.

Instead, Matar rejected that offer. Through his attorney, Barone, a counter offer was made where Matar would only serve 15 years for the second-degree attempted murder, which Schmidt rejected.

Later in July, an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo charged Matar with providing material support to a militant group overseas sometime between September 2020 and August 2022.

A trial on that case is not expected to take place before the trial in Chautauqua County is completed.