New York: A New Jersey man who stabbed renowned British-Indian author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage has been convicted of attempted murder and assault by a jury in New York.
Hadi Matar, 27, now faces a sentence of more than 30 years in prison, along with federal terrorism-related charges, BBC reported.
The attack in August 2022 left Rushdie with severe injuries, including damage to his liver, vision loss in one eye, and a paralysed hand caused by nerve damage to his arm. The jury’s guilty verdict on Friday came after a two-week trial in Chautauqua County Court in western New York state, near the site of the attack.
The jury also found Matar guilty of assault for wounding the interviewer, Henry Reese, who was on stage with the author. Reese suffered a minor head injury during the attack, BBC reported. Matar’s sentencing date has been scheduled for April 23.
Rushdie, 77, testified that he was on stage at the historic Chautauqua Institution when he saw a man rushing towards him. Recalling the incident, he said he was struck by the assailant’s eyes, “which were dark and seemed very ferocious”.
He initially thought he had been punched, before realising he had been stabbed — 15 times in total — with wounds to his eye, cheek, neck, chest, torso and thigh. The attack took place more than 35 years after Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, was first published. (IANS)
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