A United States inmate serving a 25‑year sentence for an attempted assassination of Sir Salman Rushdie has now been found guilty of further offenses, including supplying material support to a terrorist organization.
Hadi Matar was convicted Wednesday in a New York federal court of providing assistance to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom and numerous other nations.
Prosecutors contended that Matar’s actions were driven by a 1989 fatwa issued by Iran’s spiritual leader calling for Rushdie’s death.
The award‑winning author testified at trial, recounting the assault and crediting a firefighter with saving his life through immediate medical assistance.
The jury found Matar guilty of committing an act of transnational terrorism and of providing material support to Hezbollah.
During the Buffalo trial, prosecutors argued that Matar was spurred by a 2006 speech from Hezbollah’s then‑leader urging enforcement of the fatwa against Rushdie and that he had planned the attack for two years.
“The defendant decided that no one else would act, so he had to carry it out,” Assistant US Attorney Timothy Lynch said in his closing statement, according to The Buffalo News.
He answered that call, according to the prosecution.
Prosecutors also presented videos recorded by Matar, age 28, and called Sir Salman to the witness stand, where he described being stabbed fifteen times—on his cheek, chest, eye, neck and thigh.
He testified, “I was on the stage, lying on the floor, surrounded by an enormous pool of blood—a vast lake of blood.”
He lifted the darkened lens of his glasses to reveal the eye wound, which has left him partially blinded, noting that the assailant’s knife passed within millimetres of his brain.
Defense attorneys contended that Matar’s assault was not driven by terrorism and questioned whether Rushdie should have anticipated backlash to his controversial 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses.
Rushdie replied, “I don’t think the book is on trial; someone else is.”
Matar is presently serving a 25‑year sentence after being convicted of attempted murder by a state court in 2025, and he now faces life imprisonment under the federal conviction.