Novelist Salman Rushdie promotes the German version of his book Knife: Meditation after attempted murder On May 16, 2024, in Berlin. In the book, Rushdie faces an attack in 2022, blinding him in one eye. Sean Gallup/Getty Images Closed subtitles
Hadi Matar, the man of novelist Salman Rushdie, who was seriously injured in the 2022 stabbing attack, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday, the highest charge in an attempted murder case.
Matar, 27, was found guilty of second-degree murder in February for his attack on the author at a nonprofit Chautauqua agency in New York State in August 2022.
The assault left Rushdie, 77, partially blind and permanently damaged nerves. The author did not return to the Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, NY for a sentence, but did file a victim impact statement.
Judge David Foley also sentenced Matar to seven years and served simultaneously because the host who tried to stop the attack was injured.
Hadi Matar (right) and public defender Nathaniel Barone heard a judgment from a Giottoqua County judge on Friday in Giottoqua County Court in Mayville, New York. Adrian Kraus/AP Closed subtitles
Rushdie's Book Satanic Scripture, Published in 1988, sparking anger protests on controversial descriptions of the Muslim world The life of the prophet Muhammad. A few months after his death in 1989, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini published the religious Fatwa calling for Rushdie's murder.
During trial, U.S. Attorney's Office in Western New York accused Matar of acting in Fatwa. At the time of the attack, Matar, who lived in Fairview, New Jersey, did not call the religious decree a motive, but said he did not like Rushdie and told the religious decree. New York Post In a prison interview, the author attacked Islam. In the same interview, Matal admitted that he had read only about two pages Satanic Scripture.
Rushdie himself testified at the February trial, telling the jury assaulters to repeatedly beat him. The novelist described it as being surprised during the attack, and then suddenly realized that “a lot of blood was pouring out of my clothes.”
Matar's defense team believes this is not an opening case. Attorney Lynn Schaffer admitted at the trial: “It really happened.
Matar faces another trial on charges of federal terrorism in connection with Rushdie's attack.
The charge filed last July, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said Matar “attempted to enforce the (Hezbollah)-approved Fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, a FATWA issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989.” If convicted on federal charges – including offering significant support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens – Matar faces life in prison. A trial date has not been set.
The award-winning Rushdie is an Indian-born British citizen who has written many books. Apart from Satanic Scriptureso does he Midnight kidslocated in post-colonial India and Knife: Meditation after attempted murdera memoir about the attack published last year.