The 27-year-old New Jersey man who was convicted in February of stabbing and partially blinding famed novelist Salman Rushdie was hit with the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on Friday.
Hadi Matar was convicted of second-degree attempted murder for the August 2022 stabbing attack that also injured the event’s moderator, Henry Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, which helps exiled writers, Reuters reported. Rushdie — who sparked the ire of the Iranian regime with his 1988 novel, “The Satanic Verses” — was stabbed by Matar between 10 and 15 times in the head, neck, torso, and left hand at a New York arts institute. After the book was published, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s assassination.
Video captured Matar rushing the stage where Rushdie spoke during a writers’ event focused on protecting exiled writers. During the trial, a trauma surgeon testified that without immediate medical intervention, Rushdie would have died, ABC News reported. The jury took just two hours to reach a verdict. Matar was also sentenced to seven years for second-degree assault in the stabbing of Reese, but that sentence will run concurrently with the longer one.
Before the trial began in Chautauqua County Court, Matar rejected a plea deal. Shortly after the jury reached its verdict, his defense attorney, Nathaniel Barone, said Matar plans to appeal the conviction. Matar has also been charged by the federal government with an act of terrorism. He will face those charges at a separate trial in Buffalo, according to Reuters.
Rushdie was born into a non-practicing Muslim family in British India, and now identifies as an atheist. “The Satanic Verses,” which was labeled as blasphemous by hardline Islamists, refers to verses of the Quran that Rushdie claimed had been removed. Rushdie said that his book is not blasphemous against Islam, adding, “I doubt very much Khomeini or anyone else in Iran has read this book or anything more than selected extracts taken out of context.”
After the sentencing hearing, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said that the stabbing attack still haunts the 77-year-old author.
“He’s traumatized. He has nightmares about what he experienced,” Schmidt said. “Obviously this is a major setback for an individual that was starting to emerge in his very later years of life into society after going into hiding after the fatwa.”
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The 27-year-old New Jersey man who was convicted in February of stabbing and partially blinding famed novelist Salman Rushdie was hit with the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on Friday.
Hadi Matar was convicted of second-degree attempted murder for the August 2022 stabbing attack that also injured the event’s moderator, Henry Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, which helps exiled writers, Reuters reported. Rushdie — who sparked the ire of the Iranian regime with his 1988 novel, “The Satanic Verses” — was stabbed by Matar between 10 and 15 times in the head, neck, torso, and left hand at a New York arts institute. After the book was published, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s assassination.
Video captured Matar rushing the stage where Rushdie spoke during a writers’ event focused on protecting exiled writers. During the trial, a trauma surgeon testified that without immediate medical intervention, Rushdie would have died, ABC News reported. The jury took just two hours to reach a verdict. Matar was also sentenced to seven years for second-degree assault in the stabbing of Reese, but that sentence will run concurrently with the longer one.
Before the trial began in Chautauqua County Court, Matar rejected a plea deal. Shortly after the jury reached its verdict, his defense attorney, Nathaniel Barone, said Matar plans to appeal the conviction. Matar has also been charged by the federal government with an act of terrorism. He will face those charges at a separate trial in Buffalo, according to Reuters.
Rushdie was born into a non-practicing Muslim family in British India, and now identifies as an atheist. “The Satanic Verses,” which was labeled as blasphemous by hardline Islamists, refers to verses of the Quran that Rushdie claimed had been removed. Rushdie said that his book is not blasphemous against Islam, adding, “I doubt very much Khomeini or anyone else in Iran has read this book or anything more than selected extracts taken out of context.”
After the sentencing hearing, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said that the stabbing attack still haunts the 77-year-old author.
“He’s traumatized. He has nightmares about what he experienced,” Schmidt said. “Obviously this is a major setback for an individual that was starting to emerge in his very later years of life into society after going into hiding after the fatwa.”
“}]]
