BUFFALO, New York, Hadi Matar, the man who seriously injured controversial author Salman Rushdie during a public event in 2022, has been found guilty on U.S. federal terrorism charges, bringing another major legal chapter in the high-profile case to a close.
A federal jury in Buffalo, New York, convicted the 28-year-old on all charges after approximately two hours of deliberation. The verdict followed a week-long trial in the U.S. District Court.
Matar was found guilty of attempting to provide material support to the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, engaging in international terrorism, and providing material support to terrorists.
According to prosecutors, Matar spent more than a year researching the fatwa issued against Rushdie before carrying out the attack while the author was delivering a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Mayville, New York, in 2022.
Rushdie, now 79, was stabbed multiple times in the head, neck, torso, and left hand. The attack left him permanently blind in his right eye and caused severe internal injuries, requiring emergency surgery followed by months of rehabilitation.
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Rushdie had lived under security threats since the publication of his controversial 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses.” Following the book’s release, Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared the work blasphemous and issued a fatwa calling for the author’s death.
Matar, a U.S. citizen from Fairview, New Jersey, had already been convicted in a New York state court in 2025 of attempted murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The federal terrorism convictions carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. U.S. District Court has scheduled Matar’s sentencing for November 3, 2026.
