Man convicted in terrorism trial over the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie

By AP 29 July 2026, 11:55 pm

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Hadi Matar walks in to the Chautauqua County court in Mayville, New York, May, 16, 2025. (AP/Adrian Kraus)

A man is convicted of federal terrorism charges in the 2022 stabbing of Salman Rushdie, the author who has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel “The Satanic Verses.”

A jury find Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism.

Matar, 28, is already serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction in the August 2022 attack on an amphitheater stage. The federal conviction carries a potential life sentence.

Rushdie, who was about to speak on writers’ safety, was slashed 15 times in front of a stunned audience. He was gravely wounded and lost the sight in his right eye.