A New Jersey man, Hadi Matar, has been convicted of attempted murder and assault for stabbing Salman Rushdie multiple times on a lecture stage in New York. Matar, 27, now faces more than 30 years in prison.
Rushdie was attacked at the Chautauqua Institute in August 2022, leaving him severely injured. He suffered liver damage, blindness in one eye, and nerve damage that left him paralyzed in one arm.
Matar was also found guilty of assaulting Rushdie's partner, journalist Henry Reese, after a jury found him guilty on Friday after a two-week trial in Chautauqua County Court, in which Reese suffered a minor head injury.
Matar's sentencing date is set for April 23. The attack comes more than 35 years after Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses was first published. The book was about the life of the Muslim religious leader, the Prophet Muhammad, which caused intense controversy among some Muslims, who considered it offensive. After its publication in 1988, the book was banned in many countries.
Salman Rushdie received numerous death threats at the time, and Iran's religious leader issued a death sentence for him in 1989. As a result, he was forced to live in hiding for nearly nine years. However, Rushdie has recently said that the threats against him have diminished considerably.
During closing arguments in the trial, prosecutor Jason Schmitt used video footage to highlight the targeted nature of the attack. “There were a lot of people that day, but only one person was targeted,” he told the jury.
Matar's lawyer, Andrew Brautigan, claimed that prosecutors had failed to prove that Matar had attacked Salman Rushdie with the intent to kill. Matar was neither a witness in his own defense nor did he testify himself.
Salman Rushdie, 77, told the court that he was standing on the stage when a man rushed towards him. He looked into the attacker's eyes, which were dark and looked very violent. At first he thought he had been stabbed, but later realised he had been stabbed 15 times, including in the eye, cheek, throat, chest, body and leg.
Now waiting for Matar's sentence to be announced.
