Salman Rushdie attacker convicted of terrorism charges
A federal jury on Wednesday convicted Hadi Matar of supporting Hezbollah and engaging in an act of terrorism when he attacked novelist Salman Rushdie at a cultural center in New York in August 2022, the US Justice Department said.
US Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said the 28-year-old Lebanese American spent months planning the stabbing, which nearly killed Rushdie and left him blind in one eye.
Prosecutors said Matar followed a fatwa calling for Rushdie's execution. The fatwa was first issued in 1989 by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini over Rushdie's novel “The Satanic Verses.”
Update
A federal jury convicted Hadi Matar, 28, of supporting Hezbollah and engaging in an act of terrorism.
US Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said Matar spent months planning the stabbing that nearly killed Rushdie and left him blind in one eye.
Prosecutors said Matar followed a fatwa calling for Rushdie's execution that was first issued in 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Source note: AFP news report published on 29 July 2026 at 22:54:52 UTC.
Source
AFP news report published on .