THE man accused of attempting to kill author Salman Rushdie in New York has been found guilty.
Hadi Matar from New Jersey faces a sentence up to 25 years behind bars for the bloody attack on the British-Indian author that left him with life-changing injuries.
APHadi Matar has been found guilty of the assault and attempted murder of Salman Rushdie[/caption]
AFPRushdie was left with life changing injuries after the attack[/caption]
APRushdie testifies on the witness stand gesturing how the attacker slashed his throat when he was attacked[/caption]
He was stabbed by the 27-year-old 15 times on stage in front of a shocked audience at a book event at the Chautauqua Institute in New York on August 12, 2022.
The author suffered wounds to his right eye, cheek, back, chest, torso and thigh.
The 77-year-old has lost sight in his right eye, suffered liver damage, and has a paralysed hand due to nerve damage.
Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before finding Matar guilty of attempted murder and the assault the man who was on stage with the prize-winning author at the time.
Henry Reese, the founder of the City of Asylum Pittsburgh was going to speak with Rushdie at the event about keeping writers safe when he was caught up in the attack and received a gash to the head.
During the trial, Rushdie was the key witness describing over seven days of testimony the horrific details of the injuries he suffered and the long and painful recovery he has endured.
He told the court how he thought he was dying when the masked man rushed onto the stage stabbing and slashing at him until bystanders intervened and ultimately saved his life.
A trauma surgeon who testified during the trial told the jury that the author would not have survived had his severe wounds not been treated as quickly as they were.
During closing arguments, the final time lawyers address the jury before they make their decision, District Attorney Jason Schmidt played a video of the attack.
The slowed-down version detailed the horrors of what happened as Matar walked from the crowd onto the stage before running towards Rushdie.
He approached the unsuspecting author from behind as he was seated on a chair and reached around to target Rushdie’s torso.
The stunned author managed to get up and stumble forwards before the pair collapsed on the floor as onlookers rushed to help Rushdie who was flailing on the floor covered in blood.
Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and over three weeks at a rehabilitation centre in New York before continuing his recovery at home which he detailed in his 2024 memoir Knife.
In it, he blasted Matar as a “dumb clown who got lucky” as he said he had a premonition of the attack after dreaming of being speared by a gladiator days before.
Of the stabbing, he wrote: “Why now, after all these years?”
He described the assailant as “some sort of time traveller, a murderous ghost from the past”.
He added: “Don’t make him sound like an angel of doom. He’s just a dumb clown who got lucky.”
The attack came more than three decades after Iran’s leaders issued a fatwa death order against Sir Salman for his novel, The Satanic Verses.
A separate federal indictment alleges that Matar from New Jersey, was motivated to attack Rushdie by a 2006 speech in which the leader of the militant group Hezbollah endorsed the 1989 fatwa.
When Matar was handed the verdict he gave no reaction and continued to look down at the table in front of him.
As he was escorted out in handcuffs, the wannabe killer muttered under his breath “Free Palestine” as he frequently did during the trial.
His lawyer said he was disappointed by the verdict but well prepared for it.
The judge scheduled his sentencing for April 23.
A trial on the federal terrorism-related charges will be scheduled in U.S. District Court in Buffalo.
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APMatar will be sentenced in April after jurors handed down their verdict in under two hours[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
