US court convicts Rushdie attacker on terrorism charges

A New York federal court has convicted Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie in 2022, on charges of transnational terrorism and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation. The verdict, delivered on Wednesday, adds to Matar's existing 25-year sentence for attempted murder.

Prosecutors argued that Matar was motivated by a 1989 fatwa issued by Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which called for Rushdie's death over his novel The Satanic Verses. They said Matar planned the attack for two years before carrying it out in August 2022 at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.

During the trial, Rushdie testified about the attack, describing how he was stabbed 15 times in the face, neck, chest, and thigh. He credited a firefighter with saving his life by providing immediate medical care. 'I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me,' he said, adding that the knife came 'within millimetres from my brain.'

The defence argued that Matar's actions were not terrorism but a personal act, and questioned whether Rushdie should have anticipated backlash for his writing. However, the jury disagreed, finding Matar guilty of providing material support to Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States, the United Kingdom, and several other nations.

The case highlights ongoing tensions over the fatwa, which remains influential in some quarters even though the Iranian government has formally distanced itself from it. Rushdie's novel was banned in Iran soon after its 1988 publication, with many Muslims considering it blasphemous.