Man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie sentenced to 25 years in prison

Carolyn Thompson · The Associated Press

· Posted: May 16, 2025 11:06 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

The antheral convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie connected a New York lecture signifier successful 2022, leaving the prizewinning writer unsighted successful 1 eye, was sentenced Friday to service 25 years successful prison.

A assemblage recovered Hadi Matar, 27, blameworthy of attempted execution and battle successful February.

Rushdie did not instrumentality to the occidental New York courtroom for his assailant's sentencing but submitted a unfortunate interaction statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old writer was the cardinal witness, describing however helium believed helium was dying erstwhile a masked attacker plunged a weapon into his caput and assemblage much than a twelve times arsenic helium was being introduced astatine the Chautauqua Institution to talk astir writer safety.

Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a connection astir state of code successful which helium called Rushdie a hypocrite.

Matar received the maximum 25-year condemnation for the attempted execution of Rushdie and 7 years for wounding a antheral who was connected signifier with him. The sentences indispensable tally concurrently due to the fact that some victims were injured successful the aforesaid event, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.

In requesting the maximum sentence, Schmidt told the justice that Matar "chose this. He designed this onslaught truthful that helium could inflict the astir magnitude of damage, not conscionable upon Mr. Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 radical who were determination to ticker it."

Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed retired that Matar had an different cleanable transgression grounds and disputed that the radical successful the assemblage should beryllium considered victims, suggesting that a condemnation of 12 years would beryllium appropriate.

Rushdie spent 17 days astatine a Pennsylvania infirmary and much than 3 weeks astatine a New York City rehabilitation centre. The writer of Midnight's Children, The Moor's Last Sigh and Victory City detailed his betterment successful his 2024 memoir, Knife.

Matar adjacent faces a national proceedings connected terrorism-related charges. While the archetypal proceedings focused mostly connected the details of the weapon onslaught itself, the adjacent 1 is expected to delve into the much analyzable contented of motive.

Authorities said Matar, a U.S. citizen, was attempting to transportation retired a decades-old fatwa, oregon edict, calling for Rushdie's decease erstwhile helium travelled from his location successful Fairview, N.J., to people Rushdie astatine the summertime retreat immoderate 113 kilometres southwest of Buffalo.

Matar believed the fatwa, archetypal issued successful 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant radical Hezbollah and endorsed successful a 2006 code by the group's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, according to national prosecutors.

Iranian person Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa aft work of Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, which immoderate Muslims see blasphemous. Rushdie spent years successful hiding, but aft Iran announced it would not enforce the decree helium travelled freely implicit the past quarter-century.

Matar pleaded not blameworthy to a three-count indictment charging him with providing worldly to terrorists, attempting to supply worldly enactment to Hezbollah and engaging successful coercion transcending nationalist boundaries.

Video of the assault, captured by the venue's cameras and played astatine trial, shows Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from down and reaching astir him to stab astatine his torso with a knife.

As the assemblage gasps and screams, Rushdie is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a fewer steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they some autumn and are surrounded by onlookers who unreserved successful to abstracted them.

Jurors successful Matar's archetypal proceedings delivered their verdict aft little than 2 hours of deliberation.