Rushdie receives libel apology from fatwa bodyguard

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Author Salman Rushdie received an apology in court Tuesday from a former policeman who libelled him in a book about his time in hiding under a fatwa threat.

Rushdie said Ron Evans, an ex-police driver who guarded him after Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a call for his death over the novel "The Satanic Verses" in 1989, had penned "surrealist untruths" about him.

The false claims made by Evans in the book "On Her Majesty's Service" included that Rushdie had bad relations with his police protection team and that they once locked him in a room after he irritated them.

Other untrue allegations included that he had poor personal hygiene and that his relationship with third wife Elizabeth West was based on his wealth.

Speaking...