The man who stabbed Salman Rushdie in the eye on stage in 2022 is going on trial for the second time – this time facing terrorism charges after being found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison last year.
Hadi Matar’s federal trial begins on Wednesday in Buffalo, New York, about 70 miles from the spot where Rushdie was scheduled to speak about writers in political exile in August 2022, when he was attacked with a knife more than a dozen times.
Matar, 28, was convicted of attempted murder and assault at the state level in May last year. He denies charges that include providing material support to terrorists and committing an act of international terrorism, and faces a possible life sentence if convicted on all counts.
Rushdie, 79, survived the attack but lost the vision in one eye and suffered permanent nervous system damage. The Booker Prize-winning author is expected to testify again, having already testified at Peale’s state trial. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
At the heart of the case is whether Matar was acting on former Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa against Rushdie calling for his death over his novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Prosecutors have also argued that Matar was working in the service of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia in Lebanon.
Matar, a California-born US-Lebanese dual citizen, has been described by relatives as visiting his father in Lebanon who was separated in 2018.
Investigators say Peale’s electronic devices and a personal journal showed detailed research into how the attack might have been carried out. He also says it includes a note considering the case for swift action given Rushdie’s age – that he could die “any day”, “so now or never!!!”. Photographs of Khomeini and his successor Ali Khamenei were reportedly found in Matar’s New Jersey bedroom.
Prosecutors also alleged that Matar made and circulated propaganda videos in the months before the attack, including a 2006 speech by Hezbollah’s then-leader Hassan Nasrallah that condemned cartoon depictions of the Prophet. Court filings further claim that Matar had corresponded with an Iran-based contact in the months before the stabbing, who he said knew “where to find Rushdie”. Matar also asked him if the fatwa was active.
Rushdie was born in India and moved to Britain at the age of 14. He won the Booker Prize in 1981 for Midnight’s Children, before The Satanic Verses made him the target of threats. Iran has denied involvement in the 2022 attack, although the fatwa was never formally withdrawn. In 2024, Rushdie published a memoir about the attack, Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder.
