Who Is Hadi Matar, the American-Lebanese man convicted for attack on Salman Rushdie?

Hadi Matar is a dual Lebanese and American citizen and came to the US with his family as a child. Matar was motivated to attack Rushdie by a 2006 speech by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah's leader, which endorsed a decades-old fatwa calling for his death.

Bobins AbrahamUpdated: Feb 22, 2025, 08:48 IST

2 min read

Who Is Hadi Matar, the American-Lebanese man convicted for attack on Salman Rushdie

CREDIT: AP

A court in the US has found Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed India-born British and American novelist Salman Rushdie in 2022, guilty of attempted murder. The 27-year-old faces up to 32 years in jail for stabbing Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage on August 12, 2022.

Who Is Hadi Matar, the American-Lebanese man convicted for attack on Salman Rushdie CREDIT: AP

The quantum of sentence for the Fairview, New Jersey resident will be announced on April 23.

Who Is Hadi Matar?

Matar is a dual Lebanese and American citizen and came to the US with his family as a child and was employed at a Marshalls clothing store.

According to reports, Matar had become increasingly isolated and radicalised in the years leading up to the attack.

Who Is Hadi Matar, the American-Lebanese man convicted for attack on Salman Rushdie CREDIT: REUTERS

Inspired by Hezbollah

According to his indictment, Matar was motivated to attack Rushdie by a 2006 speech by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah's leader, which endorsed a decades-old fatwa calling for his death.

Rushdie has been living under the threat of violence by Islamists since 1989 when Iran's leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him.

Rushdie, who was born in Mumbai, had angered the Islamic world with the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous.

'Did not read The Satanic Verses'

In an interview with the New York Post in 2022, Matar praised Khomeini, but Iran has denied any involvement in the attack on Rushdie.

Who Is Hadi Matar, the American-Lebanese man convicted for attack on Salman Rushdie CREDIT: AP

He also claimed that Rushdie was not a good person.

"I don't think he's a very good person. He's someone who attacked Islam," he had said.

Matar also admitted that he did not read The Satanic Verses, which is still banned in much of the Islamic world, in its entirety.

What defence lawyers said

While his defence lawyers had argued that Matar did not and never intended to kill Rushdie, the accused had previously admitted that he was disappointed to learn that the 77-year-old, who was stabbed 15 times and lost vision in one of his eyes, survived after being hospitalised for nearly a month.

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Bobins Abraham

Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.