Hadi Matar, 26, sentenced to the maximum 25 years in prison for the attempted murder and assault of author Salman Rushdie in August 2022. Matar still faces federal terrorism charges for allegedly providing material support to Hezbollah.
Hadi Matar, the 26-year-old who attempted to assassinate author Salman Rushdie, was sentenced Friday to the maximum term of 25 years in prison, reports The New York Post.
Matar was found guilty in February of attempted murder and assault following the horrific August 2022 ambush that left the 77-year-old novelist blinded in one eye and suffering severe injuries.
The attack occurred at the Chautauqua Institute, where Rushdie was about to deliver a lecture on writers’ safety. Matar, who reportedly shouted pro-Palestinian Arab slogans during his trial, received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie, who had lived for years under death threats following a decades-old fatwa.
Matar also received a concurrent seven-year sentence for wounding Henry Reese, who was on stage with Rushdie. Before sentencing, the New Jersey resident attempted to blame Rushdie, labeling him a “bully” and accusing him of “disrespect”, according to The New York Post.
Matar, an American citizen with Lebanese citizenship, still faces a federal trial on charges of attempting to murder Rushdie as an act of terrorism. Prosecutors also accuse him of providing material support to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Rushdie, who chronicled his recovery in his 2024 memoir “Knife,” spent 17 days in a Pennsylvania hospital and over three weeks in a New York City rehabilitation center following the assault.
Since 1989, Rushdie has been the target of an Iranian fatwa (religious edict) calling for his murder for allegedly blaspheming Islam and its prophet Mohammed in his book “The Satanic Verses.”
In 2012, an Iranian foundation added another $500,000 to the reward for killing Rushdie, raising the total bounty for his death to $3.3 million.
Rushdie spent a decade in hiding after Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued the 1989 fatwa against him for his book.
Although Iran’s foreign ministry in 1998 assured Britain that Iran would do nothing to implement the fatwa, current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in January 2005 reaffirmed that Rushdie was considered an apostate whose murder was authorized under Islam.
Matar said after the stabbing he didn’t think the author would survive and would not specify if he was inspired by the fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death.
