Man Who Stabbed Salman Rushdie Convicted of Terrorism Charges

A man already serving 25 years for attempting to kill author Salman Rushdie has been found guilty of additional federal charges, including providing material support to a terrorist group. Hadi Matar, 28, was convicted on Wednesday in a New York federal court of assisting Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other nations.

Prosecutors argued that Matar was motivated by a fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Iran's former supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, calling for Rushdie's death over his novel The Satanic Verses. The jury found Matar guilty of engaging in an act of transnational terrorism and providing material support to Hezbollah.

During the trial in Buffalo, New York, prosecutors presented evidence that Matar was influenced by a 2006 speech by the then-leader of Hezbollah, which urged followers to enforce the fatwa. They claimed Matar had been planning the attack for two years. Assistant US Attorney Timothy Lynch stated in his closing argument, as reported by The Buffalo News, that the defendant decided no one else would act, so he took it upon himself.

Rushdie testified about the attack, describing how he was stabbed 15 times on stage at a literary event in August 2022. He lifted the darkened lens of his glasses to show a wound to his eye, which has left him partially blind, and said the knife came within millimetres of his brain. He credited a firefighter with saving his life by providing immediate medical aid.

Defence lawyers argued that the attack was not motivated by terrorism and questioned whether Rushdie should have anticipated a backlash to his novel. Rushdie responded that the book was not on trial. Matar is already serving a 25-year state sentence for attempted murder, and could now face life in prison under the federal conviction.