Salman Rushdie attacker found guilty, faces up to 32 years in prison

Hadi Matar was also convicted of assault for injuring Ralph Henry Reese, a co-founder of a programme that provides refuge for writers, who was on stage to moderate the event

A jury in western New York convicted Hadi Matar, a 27-year-old from New Jersey, of attempted murder for the stabbing of Indian-born British author Salman Rushdie, The New York Times reported.

The verdict came after testimony from Rushdie, who said he had been struck by his attacker's dark, ferocious eyes. Rushdie described initially feeling as though he was being punched, but soon realised he had "a very large quantity of blood pouring out" onto his clothes.

Matar was also convicted of assault for injuring Ralph Henry Reese, a co-founder of a programme that provides refuge for writers, who was on stage to moderate the event. Matar is set to be sentenced on April 23 and faces up to 32 years in prison, in addition to federal terrorism-related charges, The New York Times reported.

Rushdie had been scheduled to give a talk on August 12, 2022, at the Chautauqua Institution. However, just before his talk, a man in dark clothing and a face mask went onto the stage and repeatedly stabbed Rushdie.

Rushdie had suffered three stab wounds to his neck, four to his stomach, puncture wounds to his right eye and chest, and a cut on his right thigh. Rushdie was also blinded in the eye and the attack also affected the use of one of his hands.

Soon after the attack, he was rushed to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania and underwent surgery. He also suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye.

Matar had earlier praised Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini and admitted that he didn't think that the author would survive. "When I heard he survived, I was surprised, I guess," Hadi Matar had said as quoted by the New York Post.

Matar was asked whether he was inspired by the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against Rushdie over his book 'The Satanic Verses,' to which he replied, "I respect the Ayatollah. I think he's a great person. That's as far as I will say about that," Matar said, noting he only "read like two pages" of Rushdie's controversial novel. "I read a couple of pages. I didn't read the whole thing cover to cover," he said.

Earlier, Rushdie endured death threats after his 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses' which angered many Muslims, who considered it sacrilegious. The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for his death and Rushdie spent a decade under British protection.