Salman Rushdie’s Attacker Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison at a Court in New York

The attacker who stabbed author Salman Rushdie at the historic arts institute in Chautauqua, New York, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday.

Hadi Matar, 27, was convicted of attempting to murder the author.

He was also found guilty of wounding another person, Henry Reese, who was interviewing Rushdie at the time. For that assault, Matar received a seven-year sentence, plus three years of post-release supervision.

Rushdie was on stage in August 2022 when he was stabbed multiple times in the face and neck. The attack left him blind in one eye, with liver damage and a paralyzed hand due to nerve damage in his arm.

Recalling the attack during the trial, Rushdie said he saw a man rushing towards him with eyes that were “dark and seemed very ferocious.”

Rushdie was not present at the sentencing but expressed satisfaction with the outcome. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Monday, he said, “I was pleased that he got the maximum available, and I hope he uses it to reflect upon his deeds.”

The attack came 35 years after the release of Rushdie’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which sparked outrage in parts of the Muslim world for its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. Iran’s Supreme Leader issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, forcing the author into hiding for nearly a decade.

Rushdie has since reflected on the 2022 attack in his memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. The book, a powerful narrative of survival, includes imagined conversations with his assailant which was crafted with the help of artificial intelligence.

“I thought if I was to really meet him and ask questions, I wouldn't get very much out of him... So I thought, I could open that conversation myself—probably better than a real one would go,” Rushdie said.