New Jersey man convicted of attempted murder of Salman Rushdie
A New Jersey man was convicted on Friday of attempted murder for stabbing author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage in 2022. Hadi Matar, 27, was also found guilty of assault for wounding a man who was on stage with Rushdie at the time of the attack.
The incident occurred at the Chautauqua Institution on August 12, 2022, where Rushdie was scheduled to speak. Matar ran onto the stage and stabbed Rushdie more than a dozen times in front of a live audience. The attack left the 77-year-old novelist blind in one eye.
During the trial, Rushdie described the harrowing experience in detail, recounting the life-threatening injuries he sustained and the long, painful recovery process that followed. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before delivering the guilty verdict.
As Matar was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, he quietly uttered, “Free Palestine,” a statement he has frequently made throughout the trial. The judge set sentencing for April 23, with Matar facing a maximum of 25 years in prison for attempted murder.
In his closing argument, the district attorney played a slow-motion video of the attack for the jury, emphasizing the unprovoked and targeted nature of the assault. Despite the defence’s argument that Matar did not intend to kill Rushdie, the prosecution maintained that the severity of the attack made it foreseeable that it could have been fatal.
Matar’s public defender expressed disappointment at the verdict but acknowledged that his client was prepared for the outcome. The defence team argued that Rushdie’s celebrity status may have influenced the severity of the charges brought against Matar.
The attack on Rushdie was reportedly motivated by a 2006 speech in which the leader of Hezbollah endorsed a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death. The author had been living freely for years after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree. A separate federal indictment alleges that Matar was driven by this extremist ideology.
A trial on the federal terrorism-related charges is set to take place in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York. The case has garnered significant attention due to Rushdie’s prominence as an author and the shocking nature of the attack. The verdict serves as a reminder of the ongoing threats faced by individuals who express controversial or dissenting views.
