New Federal Conviction Adds Terror Charges to Salman Rushdie Attacker
A New York federal judge on Tuesday convicted Hadi Matar of providing material support to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and of further engaging in transnational terrorism, adding a new layer to a case that already sees him serving a 25‑year state‑level sentence for the attempted murder of author Sir Salman Rushdie.
Matar, 28, was already serving 25 years after a state court conviction in 2025. The federal case, heard in Buffalo, New York, linked his offense to a fatwa issued by Iran’s Supreme Leader in 1989, demanding Rushdie’s death. Prosecutors said he was also motivated by a 2006 Hezbollah leader’s call for the fatwa’s enforcement and plotted the attack for two years.
Rushdie testified that he was stabbed 15 times – to his cheek, chest, eye, neck and thigh – and left with a severe eye injury. He also revealed the attacker’s knife was “within millimetres from my brain.” A firefighter, he said, saved his life by providing medical care.
Defense counsel challenged the terrorism link, asking if Rushdie should be blamed for the backlash to his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. Rushdie responded that the real trial was for the attacker, not the book.
The jury convicted Matar of transnational terrorism and providing material support to Hezbollah, a US‑designated terrorist organization. He now faces the possibility of a federal life sentence, in addition to his existing imprisonment.
