Hadi Matar was found guilty in a New York federal court on Wednesday of charges including providing assistance to Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed faction designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, and numerous other nations. The conviction adds to his existing 25-year sentence for attempted murder stemming from the attack on Sir Salman Rushdie, and he now faces potential life imprisonment on the federal charges.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Matar’s actions were motivated by a religious edict issued by Iran’s leader in 1989 calling for Sir Salman’s death. During the trial in Buffalo, the government argued that Matar had been further influenced by a 2006 address from Hezbollah’s then-leader reiterating the fatwa and that he had spent two years planning the attack. Federal prosecutors contended that Matar took it upon himself to carry out the decades-old religious edict when no one else had done so.
Sir Salman testified at length about the violent assault, describing being stabbed 15 times across multiple parts of his body, including his face, torso, and limbs. He revealed injuries to his eye that resulted in partial blindness, noting that the blade had come extremely close to his brain. The author’s firsthand account of the extensive blood loss and trauma accompanied video evidence presented by prosecutors.
Defense attorneys questioned whether the attack constituted terrorism, suggesting instead that the author should have anticipated violent backlash to his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims found offensive. Sir Salman rejected this framing, stating that the book itself was not on trial and that another person was responsible for the criminal act. The jury determined Matar engaged in an act of transnational terrorism and provided material support to a designated terrorist organization.
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