Hadi Matar, 28, a US man already serving a 25-year sentence for attempting to kill British-Indian author Sir Salman Rushdie, has been convicted of additional federal charges including providing material support to Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group designated as a terrorist organization by the US, UK, and other countries.

The conviction was handed down on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in a New York federal court in Buffalo. Prosecutors argued that Matar was motivated by a fatwa issued in 1989 by Iran's religious leader calling for Sir Salman Rushdie's death. They also cited a 2006 speech by Hezbollah's then-leader urging enforcement of the fatwa and stated that Matar had plotted the attack for two years.

Assistant US Attorney Timothy Lynch told the jury, "The defendant decided no one was going to do it, so he had to do it," according to The Buffalo News. The jury found Matar guilty of engaging in an act of transnational terrorism and providing material support to Hezbollah.

During the trial, Sir Salman Rushdie testified about the attack, describing being stabbed 15 times in areas including his cheek, chest, eye, neck, and thigh. He credited a firefighter with saving his life by providing medical care. Rushdie recounted, "I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me," describing it as "an enormous and expansive lake of blood."

Defense attorneys argued that Matar's attack was not motivated by terrorism and questioned whether Rushdie should have expected backlash to his controversial 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses.

Matar had previously been convicted of attempted murder by a state court in 2025 and is currently serving a 25-year sentence.

Sources