A New Jersey man who repeatedly stabbed British-Indian author Sir Salman Rushdie during a public lecture in 2022 was found guilty of attempted murder and assault on Friday.
Hadi Matar, 27, now faces a sentence of more than 30 years in prison. A jury in Chautauqua County Court, near the site of the attack in western New York, delivered the verdict after a two-week trial.
The attack left Rushdie, 77, with severe injuries, including liver damage, vision loss in one eye, and permanent nerve damage that paralyzed one of his hands.
Matar was also convicted of assault for injuring Henry Reese, who was on stage with Rushdie at the time of the stabbing. Reese suffered a minor head injury.
Matar’s sentencing is scheduled for April 23.
Rushdie testified that he was on stage at the historic Chautauqua Institution when he saw a man rushing toward him.
“I remember his eyes,” Rushdie said in court. “They were dark and seemed very ferocious.”
Initially believing he had been punched, Rushdie later realized he had been stabbed—15 times in total—with wounds to his eye, cheek, neck, chest, torso, and thigh.
The attack came more than 35 years after Rushdie’s novel, *The Satanic Verses*, was published in 1988. The book, inspired by the life of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, was banned in multiple countries and deemed blasphemous by some Muslims. Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa—a decree calling for Rushdie’s death—forcing the author into hiding for nearly a decade.
Despite years of threats, Rushdie had recently believed the danger had subsided.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Jason Schmidt presented slow-motion footage of the attack, emphasizing Matar’s intent.
“I want you to look at the targeted nature of the attack,” Schmidt told the jury. “There were a lot of people around that day, but there was only one person who was targeted.”
Defense attorney Andrew Brautigan argued that prosecutors failed to prove Matar intended to kill Rushdie. Matar pleaded not guilty and did not testify. His defense team also declined to call any witnesses.
In a 2022 jailhouse interview with the *New York Post*, Matar praised Ayatollah Khomeini and criticized Rushdie.
“I don’t think he’s a very good person,” Matar said. “He’s someone who attacked Islam.” He also admitted to reading only a few pages of *The Satanic Verses*.
Matar, a Fairview, New Jersey, native born to Lebanese immigrant parents, faces separate federal charges of providing material support to Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel, and other Western and Arab nations.
An indictment unsealed in July accused Matar of connections to Hezbollah, further intensifying the case’s international implications.
