By Nehru Odeh
The man who nearly killed acclaimed British-Indian author Salman Rushdie in a knife attack four years ago has been convicted by a United States federal jury on terrorism-related charges, adding to the 25-year prison sentence he is already serving for attempted murder.
Hadi Matar, 28, was found guilty on Wednesday by a federal court in Buffalo, New York, of attempting to provide material support to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, engaging in an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, and providing material support to terrorists. The convictions carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, with sentencing scheduled for November 3.
Matar is already serving a 25-year sentence imposed by a New York state court in 2025 for attempting to murder Rushdie during a literary event at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York on August 12, 2022.
The attack shocked the literary world after Matar rushed onto the stage moments before Rushdie was due to deliver a lecture and stabbed him 15 times in the head, neck, chest, eye and thigh. The award-winning novelist survived but permanently lost the sight in his right eye and suffered severe nerve damage and other life-threatening injuries.
During the federal trial, Rushdie, now 79, gave emotional testimony, recounting the horrifying moments of the attack.
“I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me,” he told the court, describing it as “an enormous and expansive lake of blood.”
He also removed the darkened lens covering his damaged eye to show jurors the lasting effects of the assault, saying the knife had come “within millimetres from my brain.”
Federal prosecutors argued that the attack was not a spontaneous act of violence but the culmination of years of planning inspired by the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for Rushdie’s death after the publication of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses.
According to prosecutors, Matar spent more than a year researching the fatwa, communicated with individuals overseas about carrying it out, surrounded himself with Hezbollah propaganda and symbols, and travelled to New York with a fake driver’s licence bearing the name “Hassan Mughniyeh”—a reference to former Hezbollah leaders. Investigators also said he visited a Hezbollah-linked website on the morning of the attack and saved images of deceased Hezbollah operatives.
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo described Matar as someone who had embraced violent extremist ideology.
“Hadi Matar chose to align his values with the terroristic values of the leaders of Iran,” DiGiacomo said after the verdict, adding that the defendant had spent months preparing what he hoped would be the execution of Rushdie.
FBI Buffalo Special Agent in Charge Alan Davis also said the evidence showed the attack was “deliberate,” “researched,” and “motivated by violent extremist ideology.”
Defence lawyers argued that the stabbing, though violent, did not amount to terrorism and challenged whether Matar had acted on behalf of any terrorist organisation. They also questioned Rushdie about whether he should have expected backlash over The Satanic Verses. The novelist dismissed the suggestion, telling the court: “I don’t believe the book is on trial. Somebody else is on trial.”
Rushdie’s 1988 novel sparked outrage in parts of the Muslim world, leading Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his assassination. The British-Indian writer spent years in hiding under police protection, though he later resumed public life and continued writing.
In 2024, he published Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, a memoir reflecting on the attack and his recovery. He has since returned to public appearances and literary events despite the lasting physical effects of the assault.
