The man who attacked writer Salman Rushdie was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday, local prosecutors said.
Judge David Foley conducted a futile Hadi Matar in Mayville, New York, in Mayville, New York for attempted murder in Mayville, New York.
He was convicted in February under state law and faced separate charges of terrorism under federal law.
Matar, 27, was also sentenced to seven years in prison, which will be conducted simultaneously with the main sentence.
“I’m happy with the judge’s verdict,” said Jason Schmidt, district attorney in Jotaqua County, after the sentencing.
Matar’s attorney Nathaniel Barone said he plans to appeal.
Matar attacked Rushdie in Chautauqua agency in August 2022, when the author of Fatwa from Ayatollah, Iran was about to speak.
Rushdie was stabbed several times, including losing his right eye, now wearing his eyes.
Henry Reese held a plan to grant shelter to persecuted writers, and was also injured in the attack.
Rushdie details the attack and its consequences in a memoir published in 2024 by Knife.
The origin of the attack dates back to 1989, when Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran published Fatwa calling for Rushdie to die, saying that his novel was published the previous year’s “The Satanic Verses”, which was blasphemous.
This forced Rushdie to hide under the protection of British authorities for several years before he moved to New York and began to appear publicly.
Before the verdict, Matal told Judge Rushdy “want to be a bully, he wanted to bully others. I don’t agree with that”.
In a casual statement, Madal said Rushdie was disrespectful to others, in which he talked about freedom of speech and religious freedom.
“All of this is ironic,” Schmidt said.
“His value system is that he can impose his sense of justice on people who violate his value system.”
Baron said Matar tried to let the court know that “he was very powerful about his Muslim religion.”
He noted that while some people may agree with Matar, other Shia Muslims said: “What happened.”
When then-Attorney General Merrick Garland filed a lawsuit against Matar in July, he said he “had committed terrorism in the name of terrorism, a designated terrorist organization that is consistent with the Iranian regime.”
Baron said the case is expected to take place in July, and he expects the trial to begin early next year.
In the U.S. legal system, there are some separate (and sometimes overlapping) federal and state laws that have separate state, local and federal court systems and can be tried on different charges in these courts.
