Institution officials attend to Rushdie on the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater stage. AP photo

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the Biden administration is considering sanctions against entities linked to Iran for encouraging attacks on author Salman Rushdie.

Rushdie was stabbed several times before a lecture Aug. 12 at Chautauqua Institution. His alleged attacker, Hadi Matar, has entered a plea of not guilty in Chautauqua County Court.

Sanctions under consideration, according to the Wall Street Journal, include restricting the access of some Iranian entities to the global financial system, according to sources who spoke with the Wall Street Journal. The Journal said some U.S. officials say elements of the Iranian regime may be liable because of their support for the religious fatwa issued by former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 in the wake of Rushdie’s famous book, “The Satanic Verses.” The novel fictionalized parts of the Prophet Mohammed’s life and upset many Muslims who called Rushdie’s book blasphemous.

No decision has been made on the sanctions yet.

Matar gave a jailhouse interview to the New York Post after the attack and said he hadn’t had contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, though he told the New York City newspaper he had only read a couple pages of “The Satanic Verses.”

“I don’t like the person. I don’t think he’s a very good person,” Matar told the Post. “He’s someone who attacked Islam. He attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.”

Matar will be back in Chautauqua County Court today. Judge David Foley is expected to rule on a request from District Attorney Jason Schmidt on how quickly evidence has to be turned over to Public Defender Nathaniel Barone as well as Schmidt’s request to withhold witnesses’ names from the defense until the trial gets closer. Schmidt said in court Wednesday that Matar may have been motivated by the $3 million fatwa issued by Khomeini and is worried about attacks on witnesses if their identities are given to Matar and Barone.

Foley asked Schmidt if he believes there is a real potential threat to witnesses.

“Yes,” Schmidt replied.

Iran has denied involvement in the attack, a fact Barone brought up in court Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, reformists in Iran, those who want to slowly liberalize the country’s Shiite theocracy from inside and have better relations with the West, have sought to distance the country’s government from the edict. Notably, reformist President Mohammad Khatami’s foreign minister in 1998 said that the “government disassociates itself from any reward which has been offered in this regard and does not support it.”

“There’s nothing that’s been provided to us to show that the Iranian government is actively supporting the attack on any supporters of Mr. Rushdie who may come forward to testify,” he said.