(NEW YORK) — A New Jersey man convicted of attempted murder in the 2022 stabbing attack on author Salman Rushdie, while on stage at a speaking event, is set to be sentenced on Friday.
Hadi Matar likely faces a maximum of 25 years in prison, prosecutors said. He rejected a plea deal ahead of the trial.
His sentencing hearing is set to be held Friday morning in Chautauqua County Court, during which a defense motion to set aside the verdict will also be heard, the court said.
In February, a jury found Matar guilty of second-degree attempted murder in connection with the attack at the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York.
Rushdie was on stage speaking before an audience at the education center on Aug. 12, 2022, when he was stabbed multiple times in the face and neck in the attack, which blinded him in one eye.
Henry Reese, who was moderating the event, was also wounded in the attack. Matar was also found guilty of assault for injuring Reese.
Matar was tackled by bystanders and pinned to the stage following the attack.
The jury reached a verdict within two hours of deliberating.
During the trial, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt played slow-motion video showing Matar emerging from the audience, sprinting toward Rushdie, and launching a violent attack. Schmidt described the stabbing as a deliberate, targeted act, arguing that striking someone 10 to 15 times in the face and neck made death a foreseeable outcome. A trauma surgeon testified that Rushdie would have died without immediate medical intervention.
“No question,” Rushdie told Good Morning America in April 2024 when asked if he thought he was going to die. “I mean, lying there in this lake of blood, which was mine and was expanding, I remember thinking in a completely calm way, Oh yeah, I think I’m dying. And then, fortunately, I was wrong.”
The defense countered that prosecutors failed to prove Matar intended to kill Rushdie and characterized the incident as a chaotic, noisy outburst rather than a calculated murder attempt. Public defender Nathaniel Barone argued Matar was overcharged due to Rushdie’s celebrity, noting he used knives rather than a gun or bomb and that Rushdie’s vital organs were not harmed.
Following the verdict, Schmidt described the prosecution’s case as “lock solid” and described the video evidence as “compelling.”
“I hope that two-and-a-half years later, Mr. Rushdie can get some satisfaction from this, poor Mr. Reese can get some satisfaction from this and everybody else that was there at the institution that risked their lives to jump on stage,” Schmidt told reporters.
Barone, meanwhile, told reporters they were “disappointed” by the verdict.
“What you hope for in any case, regardless, especially in a case like Mr. Matar’s, is that the system works for you,” Barone said.
Both Rushdie and Reese testified during the two-week trial. Matar did not testify and the defense called no witnesses.
The second-degree attempted murder charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, while the assault charge is seven years. Schmidt said following the verdict that he believed the sentences for the two charges would run concurrently, not consecutively, as they were “entwined in a single occurrence.”
“My analysis tells me that — and I always want to be fair here — that really the facts speak to a concurrent disposition,” he said at the time. “I believe even though the cumulative total is 32 years plus five years parole supervision, I think we’re really looking at 25 plus five. That’s what I’ll advocate for. I think that’s appropriate here.”
Rushdie recounted the attack in his book, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, which was published last year.
Matar still faces federal terrorism charges in connection with the attack. He was indicted by a grand jury on three counts, including attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and providing material support to terrorists. The indictment alleges he “knowingly did attempt to provide material support and resources” to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and “had engaged, and was engaging, in terrorism.”
Matar was also charged with an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries for the attack against Rushdie. The indictment alleges that he “did knowingly attempt to kill, and did knowingly maim, commit an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and assault with a dangerous weapon.”
He has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
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