Salman Rushdie attacker convicted of attempted murder and assault

- ADVERTISEMENT -

MAYVILLE, N.Y. – The man who repeatedly and nearly fatally stabbed the renowned novelist Salman Rushdie in 2022 was found guilty of attempted murder and assault on Friday.

Hadi Matar, 27, of Fairview, New Jersey, was convicted for a crime witnessed by hundreds, captured on video and the subject of “Knife,” Rushdie’s best-selling memoir about the attack and its aftermath.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 23. Matar faces up to 32 years in prison.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

During his closing argument on Friday morning, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt showed jurors slow-motion video footage of a bloody, chaotic attack. On Aug. 12, 2022, Rushdie was scheduled to speak at the Chautauqua Institution, a few miles from the courthouse.

“If you’re going to stab somebody 15 or so times about the face and neck, this might result in a fatality,” Schmidt said. “I submit to you that was the intent. We can’t read Mr. Matar’s mind when he did what he did. But we can see what he did.”

In the videos, Rushdie was seated onstage with Henry Reese, an advocate for international writers under threat. They had just begun talking when, Schmidt said, that Matar, dressed in dark clothing, approached Rushdie from behind and began wildly stabbing.

Audience members screamed and shouted as Rushdie stood to flee and his attacker pursued, slashing him again and again. Trying to fend off the flurry, a bloodied Rushdie fell beneath his attacker.

Schmidt described Reese coming to Rushdie’s aid and getting sliced above the eye. Reese testified last week that he and others subdued Matar until police took him into custody.

The prosecution called more than a dozen witnesses during a trial that spanned two weeks, including Reese, employees of the Chautauqua Institution, police officers, a forensics expert and a surgeon credited with saving Rushdie’s life.

Several witnesses identified Matar as the assailant.

Rushdie, 77, testified last week, describing in graphic detail the life-threatening and permanent injuries he endured, including the loss of sight in his right eye.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Rushdie said he experienced “a sense of great pain and shock and the awareness of the fact that there was an enormous quantity of blood I was lying in – my blood.”

“It occurred to me quite clearly that I was dying,” he said. “That was my predominant thought.”

Rushdie described a stab wound to his right eye that severed the optic nerve. He also sustained damage to tendons and nerves in his left hand. He was slashed across the neck and waist and stabbed multiple times in the chest.

Rushdie underwent surgery at UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pennsylvania. He spent more than two weeks there before returning home to New York City for inpatient rehabilitation.

The defense did not call a single witness during the trial, and Matar declined to testify.

In a closing argument, Assistant Public Defender Andrew Brautigam argued that the prosecution did not prove Matar’s objective, intent or state of mind. He said testimony did not show “anything other than a chaotic, noisy outburst occurred that resulted in injuries to Mr. Rushdie.”

“This was essentially an unplanned act,” Brautigam said. “This was not a specifically targeted attack … possibly to injure, but not kill. This is frankly a bizarre incident that has now been puffed up into an attempted murder charge.”

Rushdie, a renowned novelist perhaps best known for “Midnight’s Children,” had been under threat for more than 30 years. In 1988, he published “The Satanic Verses,” a novel that some Muslims considered blasphemous because of its references to the life of the prophet Muhammad. In 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s former supreme leader, issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death. Rushdie lived in hiding for several years, but for the past 25 years or so has lived and traveled openly.

Matar, who was born in the United States, holds dual citizenship in Lebanon and identifies as Muslim. In an interview with the New York Post soon after his arrest, Matar described Rushdie as “someone who attacked Islam.” and said “I don’t think he’s a very good person.”

Schmidt did not mention the fatwa or the prospect of Islamic terrorism in prosecuting the case. Matar faces federal terrorism charges in a later trial.

After the verdict, Chief Public Defender Nathaniel Barone said he would prepare for sentencing and then afterward file notice of appeal.

“There’s no question the video was extremely damaging to Mr. Matar,” Barone said. “The prosecution were aware of that and made use of it. It’s that old expression: A picture is worth a thousand words. The notoriety of Mr. Rushdie certainly didn’t help how this case was presented. We believe this case was overcharged. Obviously the jury saw it differently.”

“I hope Mr. Rushdie can get some satisfaction from this,” Schmidt said. “And poor Mr. Reese can get some satisfaction. A 75-year-old man was attacked . . . by a back-stabbing individual. The conduct was so horrid that I believe the maximum provided under the law isn’t sufficient.”

Rushdie declined to comment through his attorney, Nicolas Bourtin.

In a statement, PEN America, the writer’s organization of which Rushdie is a past president, said: “The conviction of Salman Rushdie’s attacker is an important step toward justice for this unparalleled writer and reaffirms that violence can never be the answer to ideas. . . . His courageous and defiant spirit is a beacon as we defend free expressions wherever it comes under threat.”

Related posts:

Salman Rushdie takes the stand in trial for his nearly fatal stabbing Jury hears detail of knife attack on Salman Rushdie, ‘The Satanic Verses’ author Trial of man in Salman Rushdie stabbing begins with jury selection Salman Rushdie, novelist who drew death threats, is stabbed at New York lecture