Man who attacked Salman Rushdie ahead of New York speech found guilty of attempted murder
A man who attacked Sir Salman Rushdie has been found guilty of attempted murder.
Hadi Matar stabbed Rushdie over a dozen times as the award-winning author was about to deliver a lecture in upstate New York, leaving him blind in one eye and his left hand paralysed.
The 27-year-old was also found guilty of assault in the second degree for injuring another man on stage, after less than two hours of deliberations by a jury at Chautauqua County Court.
The attack happened several decades after Ayatollah Khomeini, former Iranian supreme leader, issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s execution for his book The Satanic Verses, offering a multi-million dollar bounty.
During his testimony, Rushdie described the horrifying details of the attack, telling the jury he believed he was dying during the stabbing, and recalled lying in a “lake of blood”.
He added that he was stabbed in the hand, severing its tendons and leaving it partially paralysed.
The author, who was about to deliver a talk about keeping writers safe from harm as the attack took place, removed his dark-tinted glasses to show the courtroom his blinded eye.
He said: “You can see that’s what’s left of it. There’s no vision in the eye at all.”
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Rushdie was stabbed and slashed over a dozen times in the head, throat, torso, thigh and hand. When he arrived at hospital, he was losing blood so fast he went into “haemorrhagic shock”.
He spent 17 days at a trauma hospital followed by three weeks at a rehabilitation centre.
Testifying before the court, a trauma surgeon claimed the author’s injuries would have been fatal without rapid treatment.
Slow-motion footage of the attack played for jurors showed Matar running towards the author on stage from behind and stabbing him in the torso with a knife.
Rushie is seen stumbling around as the attacker continues his assault until they both fall to the ground and are separated by onlookers.
During the stabbing, Henry Reese, who was conducting the talk, was also injured when he tried to stop the attacker.
Knives, a fake ID and a visa card were later found in Matar’s backpack.
During the trial, Matar was seen laughing and smiling with his legal team, including on the day Rushdie testified about the attack.
The 27-year-old did not testify in his own defence, however, on the first day of proceedings he said “free Palestine” as he walked into court.
On the second day of the trial, he chanted: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Matar faced further charges from federal prosecutors who accused him of attempting to murder Rushdie as an act of terrorism and providing material support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group.
He will face those charged at a separate trial in Buffalo, New York.