Author Salman Rushdie’s attacker convicted of terrorism in US federal court

By  News On Air   Jul 30, 2026

In the United States, a man has been convicted of federal terrorism charges in connection with the 2022 stabbing of Salman Rushdie, the author who has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel The Satanic Verses.

A jury found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. Matar, 28, is already serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence following his conviction for attempted murder in the August 2022 attack on an amphitheatre stage. The federal conviction carries a potential life sentence.

Rushdie, who was about to speak on writers’ safety, was stabbed 15 times in front of a stunned audience. He was gravely wounded and lost the sight in his right eye.