Hadi Matar, 28, was convicted Wednesday in a New York federal court on charges including providing material support to Hezbollah and engaging in an act of transnational terrorism linked to the August 2022 stabbing attack on writer Salman Rushdie [1, 2, 3].
Matar is already serving a 25-year state prison sentence for attempted murder related to the attack, which left Rushdie with 15 knife wounds and caused partial blindness in his right eye [1, 2, 3]. Rushdie described the moment during his trial, saying, "I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me. It was an enormous and expansive lake of blood" [1].
Prosecutors said Matar was motivated by the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran's Supreme Leader calling for Rushdie’s death, as well as a 2006 speech by a Hezbollah leader urging enforcement of the fatwa. Assistant US Attorney Timothy Lynch said, "The defendant decided no one was going to do it, so he had to do it. The defendant is the one who answered that call" [1, 2, 3].
Defense lawyers argued that Matar’s attack was not motivated by terrorism and challenged the government’s evidence of his intent [1, 2, 3]. During the trial, Rushdie credited a firefighter who provided him lifesaving medical care immediately after the attack [1, 3].
With the federal terrorism conviction, Matar could face a life sentence in prison in addition to his existing 25-year state sentence [1, 2, 3].
The stabbing occurred in August 2022 during a public event in New York, when Matar attacked Rushdie on stage [1, 2, 3]. Matar was convicted in 2025 of attempted murder in state court before the federal trial [1, 2, 3].
