Man sentenced to 25 years for stabbing Salman Rushdie, a target of Khomeini fatwa

A New Jersey man convicted of attempting to kill Salman Rushdie—the outspoken author who has lived for decades under a religious death warrant issued by Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—was sentenced on Friday to 25 years in prison.

In February, a jury found Hadi Matar guilty of second-degree attempted murder for the August 12, 2022, attack at the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York.

Rushdie was stabbed multiple times in the face and neck during a speaking event, leaving him blind in one eye.

In a separate charge, Matar was sentenced to seven years for second-degree assault for stabbing Henry Reese, co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum, who was hosting the event. Both sentences will run concurrently.

He also faces federal charges accusing him of attempting to murder Rushdie as an act of terrorism and of providing material support to Hezbollah. A separate trial on those charges is pending in Buffalo.

Rushdie, 77, has lived under threat since 1989, when Iran’s then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death over The Satanic Verses, a novel deemed blasphemous by the Islamic Republic.

Speaking about the trauma suffered by Rushdie, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said: "He's traumatized. He has nightmares about what he experienced."

"Obviously this is a major setback for an individual that was starting to emerge in his very later years of life into society after going into hiding after the fatwa."

Matar's attorney, Nathaniel Barone, said his client plans to appeal the verdict.