Federal Jury Convicts Man of Terrorism in 2022 Attack on Author Salman Rushdie

Hadi Matar, 28, was found guilty Wednesday on all federal terrorism charges stemming from his August 2022 attack on novelist Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. The conviction, which includes a count of engaging in transnational terrorism, carries a potential life sentence and comes after Matar is already serving 25 years in New York state prison for an attempted murder conviction related to the same incident.

Rushdie was preparing to discuss writers’ safety when Matar rushed the stage and inflicted 15 stab wounds across the author’s body. The attack resulted in grave injuries, including the loss of sight in Rushdie’s right eye. Audience members and fellow speaker Henry Reese aided the wounded author as law enforcement apprehended Matar.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Matar was motivated by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death following publication of “The Satanic Verses” in 1988. Court documents revealed Matar had discussed the fatwa extensively through messaging apps in 2021 and 2022, eventually tracking Rushdie’s location and public appearances before the attack.

Matar’s defense team argued the government lacked proof of his mental state and motivations. The defendant declined to testify at trial, though Rushdie took the stand to describe the attack. Messages recovered from Matar’s devices showed him indicating support for Hezbollah, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, and framing the planned killing as part of a holy war.

Rushdie, born into a Muslim family, has maintained that controversial passages in “The Satanic Verses” were misinterpreted. The 1988 novel sparked global protests and violence, resulting in at least 45 deaths in riots and attacks on translators and publishers. Though Iran’s government distanced itself from Khomeini’s fatwa in 1998, Khomeini’s successor reaffirmed its validity in 2017, and an Iranian foundation has offered a bounty exceeding $3 million for the author’s death.

Rushdie, who won the Booker Prize for his 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” published a 2024 memoir detailing the attack and released a new novel, “The Eleventh Hour,” last year. He was knighted by Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II and received a Dayton Literary Peace Prize lifetime achievement award in November.