The man who stabbed the author Salman Rushdie in 2022 has been convicted of federal terrorism charges, a verdict announced as breaking news on Wednesday. The decision marks a significant conclusion to the federal case built around the assault on one of the world's best-known writers.
The convicted man is Hadi Matar, and the federal verdict represents his second conviction connected to the attack. He was already serving time in state prison following an earlier conviction stemming from the same 2022 assault, meaning he now faces consequences on two separate legal tracks.
At the heart of the federal case was the prosecutors' argument about motive. Federal prosecutors said Matar was acting at the direction of Iran when he carried out the stabbing, framing the attack not as an isolated act but as one tied to a foreign state.
According to that account, Iran had issued a religious edict calling for Rushdie's death. The edict was directed at the author following the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses, which had made him the target of that call for years.
By securing a terrorism conviction, federal authorities cast the 2022 stabbing as an act of terror rather than a simple criminal assault. That designation reflects the prosecution's contention that the attack was carried out on behalf of a foreign power intent on silencing the writer.
With the federal jury's decision now added to the earlier state conviction, Matar stands convicted twice over the attack on Rushdie. The outcome brings the federal chapter of the case to a close while he continues to serve the state prison sentence already imposed.