Hadi Matar, the attacker who stabbed and blinded the author Salman Rushdie on stage at a New York arts school, was convicted on Friday of attempted murder.
Matar,27 is seen in videos of the 2022 attack storming the Chautauqua Institution’s stage as Rushdie was being introduced to speak to an audience about keeping writers safe from harm, some of which were played for the jury during the seven days of testimony.
Rushdie, 77, was stabbed with a knife multiple times in the head, neck, torso and left hand, blinding his right eye and damaging his liver and intestines, requiring emergency surgery and months of recovery.
The author was one of the first witnesses to appear in the Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, recounting to jurors in a measured way how he thought he would be killed and revealing his blinded eye by removing his modified glasses with a blacked-out right lens.
Matar was convicted of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault for stabbing Henry Reese, co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, a non-profit organization that assists exiled authors, who was giving the talk with Rushdie that morning.
He will be sentenced on April 23, and could face 25 years in prison.
Addressing in the aftermath of the verdict, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt commended the dozens of spectators who leaped to Rushdie’s defense when he was stabbed.
“The community of the Chautauqua Institution, who I think saved Mr. Rushdie’s life by intervening, I would tell you that this entire community had been owed a swift justice here, and I’m glad that we were able to deliver it to them.”
Nathaniel Barone, the public defender who was representing Matar, stated that his client was disappointed with the verdict.
“The video, I believe, was very hurtful to Mr.Matar,” Barone said outside court, describing video of the assault shown repeatedly to the jurors, sometimes in slow motion. “It’s that old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Rushdie, who had spent the majority of the 1990s in hiding in the UK following death threats over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses, was stabbed around 15 times — in the head, neck, torso and left hand — blinding his right eye and injuring his liver and intestines. The trauma physicians who treated him after he was flown to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, said he lost so much blood he nearly died.
Following the knife attack, Matar spoke with the New York Post regarding the potential motive behind the attack.
Matar, who is a dual citizen of his birth US and Lebanon, revealed in the interview that he was shocked Rushdie survived, according to the Post.
Matar did not testify during his trial. His defense attorneys informed jurors that the prosecutors had failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt the required criminal intent to kill necessary for a conviction of attempted murder, and that he should have been charged with assault.
Matar is also facing federal charges prosecuted in the western New York region’s US attorney’s office on claims that he sought to murder Rushdie in the name of terrorism and also materially supported Lebanon’s armed movement, Hezbollah, declared by the US as a terror organization.
Furthermore, authorities indicated that federal prosecutors are meticulously reviewing additional evidence linking Matar to extremist networks, which may result in even harsher penalties if proven.
The investigation continues as law enforcement officials coordinate with international agencies to uncover any broader conspiracies or support systems. This case underscores the ongoing threat of ideologically driven violence and reaffirms the commitment of the justice system to protect free expression and hold perpetrators accountable.
