A New York man, Hadi Matar, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempting to murder author Salman Rushdie. The sentence was handed down by a Chautauqua county court on Friday, nearly three months after Matar’s conviction.
Matar, 27, of New Jersey, was convicted of attempted murder and wounding moderator Ralph Henry Reese at a literary gathering in western New York state in 2022. Rushdie, 77, suffered severe injuries, including the loss of his right eye, due to Matar’s attack.
During his sentencing hearing, Matar stated that he disagreed with Rushdie’s views, which he claimed were meant to “disrespect” others and cause harm. However, prosecutors argued that Matar had deliberately designed the attack to inflict maximum damage on both Rushdie and the community.
Matar’s motivations for the attack stemmed from a 2006 speech by Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah, who endorsed a fatwa issued against Rushdie in 1989 over his novel The Satanic Verses. Rushdie has since written about his experience and recovery in a memoir called Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.
The court ruled that Matar’s two sentences will run concurrently, as both victims were injured at the same event. Matar had previously maintained an otherwise clean criminal record, but prosecutors argued that he should be held accountable for the harm caused to Rushdie and the community.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/may/16/salman-rushdie-attacker-sentenced