Salman Rushdie attacker sentenced to 25 years in jail

[ad_1] A New Jersey man who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Sir Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage was sentenced to 25 years in jail on Friday.

Hadi Matar, 27, was convicted of tried homicide and assault earlier this 12 months.

Sir Salman was on stage talking earlier than an viewers in August 2022, when he was stabbed a number of occasions within the face and neck. The assault left him blind in a single eye, injury to his liver and a paralysed hand attributable to nerve injury to his arm.

The assault got here 35 years after Sir Salman's controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which had lengthy made him the goal of loss of life threats for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.

Matar acquired the utmost 25-year sentence for the tried homicide of Sir Salman.

He was additionally discovered responsible of assault for wounding the one that was interviewing Sir Salman, Henry Reese, and sentenced to seven years plus three years post-release for that assault.

The sentences should run concurrently as a result of each victims have been injured in the identical occasion, Chautauqua County District Lawyer Jason Schmidt stated on Friday.

Earlier than being sentenced, Matar stood and made an announcement about freedom of speech wherein he referred to as Rushdie a hypocrite, in accordance with the Related Press.

"Salman Rushdie needs to disrespect different folks," stated Matar, clad in white-striped jail clothes and sporting handcuffs. "He needs to be a bully, he needs to bully different folks. I do not agree with that."

Sir Salman was not within the court docket for his assailant's sentencing on Friday.

Matar was convicted of tried homicide and assault in February, 2025, following an intense trial throughout which Sir Salman detailed the second when he felt sure that he was going to die.

Throughout the two-week trial, he testified that he noticed a person speeding in the direction of him whereas on stage on the historic arts institute in Chautauqua, New York.

He stated his assailant's eyes "have been darkish and appeared very ferocious".

Sir Salman informed the court docket he initially didn't realise he had been stabbed, considering as a substitute that he had been punched.

Matar stabbed Sir Salman 15 occasions in complete together with to his cheek, chest, eye, neck and thigh.

Prosecutors argued that the assault was focused.

"There have been lots of people round that day however there was just one one that was focused," prosecuting lawyer Jason Schmidt then informed the jury.

Defence lawyer Andrew Brautigan had argued that prosecutors didn't show Matar meant to kill Sir Salman.

Matar, who pleaded not responsible, didn't testify in his defence. His attorneys didn't name any witnesses of their very own.

"I do not suppose he is an excellent particular person," Matar stated concerning the writer in a 2022 New York Put up story. "He is somebody who attacked Islam."

Matar praised Iran's supreme chief, Ayatollah Khomeini, for calling for Sir Salman's execution.

The assault befell some 35 years after Sir Salman's controversial novel The Satanic Verses was printed.

The novel, impressed by the lifetime of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, sparked outrage amongst some Muslims, who thought-about its content material to be blasphemous.

Sir Salman confronted numerous loss of life threats and was pressured into hiding for 9 years after Iran's non secular chief issued a fatwa - or decree - calling for the writer's loss of life because of the e-book.

However lately, the writer stated he believed the threats in opposition to him had diminished.

Simply earlier than the assault Sir Salman informed a German journal he felt his life was "comparatively regular".

The British-Indian novelist later detailed his expertise and lengthy highway to restoration in a memoir referred to as Knife: Meditations After an Tried Homicide.