Man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie convicted of ‘terrorism’ charges

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing AP and Reuters, reports that Hadi Matar, the man convicted in New York of trying to murder author Salman Rushdie, has now been found guilty on separate federal terrorism-related charges. A jury in New York reached the verdict on Wednesday after about two hours of deliberation, finding the 28-year-old guilty on all counts. He is already serving a 25-year sentence imposed in May last year for the 2022 knife attack and now faces the possibility of life in prison.

The assault occurred while Rushdie was appearing at a speaking event in New York and left him partially blind. In the federal case, prosecutors said Matar was motivated by the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for Rushdie’s death after the publication of The Satanic Verses. Al Jazeera reported that court evidence included allegations that Matar discussed the fatwa angrily on messaging apps in 2021 and 2022.

The charges included attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization. A senior US national security official said after the verdict that the attack showed the reach of Iranian terrorism, while Al Jazeera noted that Iran has denied involvement in the stabbing.

Rushdie, the Indian-born British-American novelist whose Midnight’s Children won the Booker Prize, testified during the federal trial about the attack. According to US media cited in the report, he said he did not know whether Matar was acting because of the fatwa, though he had suspicions. Rushdie has since written a memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, about the experience.