Man who stabbed Salman Rushdie convicted of attempted murder
The man who repeatedly stabbed Salman Rushdie during a 2022 public lecture in New York, leaving the author blind in one eye and with permanent nerve damage, was found guilty on Friday of attempted murder, the Associated Press reports.
Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before returning a guilty verdict for Hadi Matar, 27, according to the AP. Matar was also found guilty of assaulting Henry Reese, the man who was moderating the discussion at the Chautauqua Institution on Aug. 12, 2022. Matar had pleaded not guilty in the jury trial that began earlier this month.
Sentencing is set for April 23, the AP reports, and Matar faces up to 25 years in prison on the charge of attempted murder in the second degree.
Last July, Matar was charged with terrorism offenses in connection with the attack on Rushdie. The federal charges included providing support for Hezbollah, a militant group in Lebanon backed by Iran and designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York alleged Matar was acting on a fatwa issued by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini over Rushdie’s 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses.
Matar’s federal trial will be scheduled in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, the AP says.
Rushdie has since spoken out about the stabbing
Rushdie, 77, testified in the Chautauqua County, New York trial and detailed the vicious attack that upended his life.
He also wrote about the incident in his latest book, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.
Speaking to NPR’s Fresh Air about the book, Rushdie said he had a dream that he was publicly stabbed just two nights prior to the incident, and he almost cancelled the event where he was then attacked.
“It certainly felt very vivid and very actual and very scary,” Rushdie said. “I was rolling about in bed and thrashing around, and my wife had to wake me up.”
But, he said, writing the book helped him come to terms with what happened.
“Instead of just being the person who got stabbed, I now see myself as the person who wrote a book about getting stabbed. And so it feels like it’s back in my own authorial space, and I feel more in charge of it. And that feels good.”
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