Man convicted on terrorism charges for 2022 stabbing attack on author Salman Rushdie

Man convicted on terrorism charges for 2022 stabbing attack on author Salman Rushdie A jury has found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism - he is already serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction A man has been convicted of federal terrorism charges in connection to the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie. A jury found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. Matar, 28, is already serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction in the August 2022 attack on an amphitheatre stage. The federal conviction carries a potential life sentence. Rushdie has faced a decades-old death threat over one of his books, The Satanic Verses. In August 2022, before he was was about to speak on writers' safety, Rushdie was slashed 15 times in front of a stunned audience. He was gravely wounded and lost the sight in his right eye. In 2025, Rushdie detailed the horrific attack in which he was repeatedly stabbed by the masked man on a stage. Rushdie testified that he initially thought the perpetrator was going to punch him. "I only saw him at the last minute," Rushdie said. "I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask. "I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious." Rushdie only realised that the attacker was wielding a knife when saw blood on his clothes. He recalled lying on stage in "an enormous quantity of blood" that led to a "sense of great pain and shock." He testified, "It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought."