In brief
Hadi Matar, a US citizen who stabbed writer Sir Salman Rushdie, was already serving 25 years after a state conviction. A federal judge found him guilty of providing material support to Hezbollah, the designated terrorist group. The case hinged on Iran’s fatwa and Hezbollah’s 2006 call to enforce it. With the new conviction, Matar faces a potential life sentence in New York federal court.
US citizen Hadi Matar, serving a 25‑year sentence for the 2025 attack on author Sir Salman Rushdie, was found guilty this week of providing material support to Hezbollah.
The New York federal court charged Matar with engaging in trans‑national terrorism after prosecutors linked him to Iran‑issued fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death.
He allegedly aided the Lebanese militant group for two years, even sending videos of the assault and receiving unclear instructions from a Hezbollah leader in 2006.
During the trial Mr. Rushdie spoke of the stabbing, detailing the wounds that left him partially blind and the medical aid that saved his life.
The conviction raises Matar's potential sentence to life imprisonment, as the federal court may impose harsher penalties for the terrorism‑related offenses.
Legal experts note this conflation of revenge and terrorism signified a shift in how the US prosecutes similar cases, tying collective ideology to individual crimes.
