Salman Rushdie attacker found guilty of attempted murder after brutal onstage stabbing
After an eight day trial, Hadi Matar, the man charged with attacking and stabbing author Salman Rushdie in August 2022, has been found guilty of attempted murder.
Hadi Matar, 27, was on trial in Chautauqua County Court for rushing onto the stage where Rushdie was preparing to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York and stabbing the 77-year-old more than a dozen times in the neck, stomach, chest, hand and right eye.
The 27-year-old New Jersey man pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault in connection with the attack, which left Rushdie partially blind.
Rushdie took the stand during the second day of testimony at the trial. Sitting about 20 feet away from Matar, he said that he feared he was dying during the 2022 attack.
He initially thought his attacker was striking him with a fist.
“But I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes,” Rushdie said. “He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing.”
The Indian-born British American detailed his months of recovery in a memoir released in 2023 called “Knife: Meditations After and Attempted Murder.”
Rushdie had spent years in hiding after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, calling for his death in 1989 after the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which was considered blasphemous by some Muslims.
In court on Friday, Matar’s attorney, Andrew Brautigam, argued that the prosecution wasn’t able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill Rushdie, emphasizing that an investigation into Matar’s background wasn’t conducted, and that Rushdie himself described the attack as an assault rather than an attempted murder.
To counter, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt played a slow-motion video of the attack, showing the assailant dash toward Rushdie, The Associated Press reported.
“I want you to look at the unprovoked nature of this attack,” District Attorney Jason Schmidt said in court, according to the outlet. “I want you to look at the targeted nature of the attack. There were a lot of people around that day but there was only one person who was targeted.”
Matar, a dual American and Lebanese citizen, declined to testify in his defense Friday, according to The Associated Press. He has been held without bail since the attack.
The courtroom was packed as the lawyers presented their closing arguments Friday afternoon. The jury began deliberating shortly after, reaching the guilty verdict shortly after.
Matar now faces up to 25 years in prison, NBC affiliate WGRZ reported. Sentencing has been set for April 23.
