Salman Rushdie’s Attacker Charged With Supporting Hezbollah

A man who allegedly stabbed author Salman Rushdie in a violent knife attack in western New York now faces an additional charge of supporting a terrorist organisation.

An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on Wednesday accuses Hadi Matar of providing material support to Hezbollah, a militant group based in Lebanon and supported by Iran. The indictment did not specify what evidence connects Matar to Hezbollah.

This federal charge follows Matar's recent rejection of a plea deal offered by state prosecutors, which would have recommended a shorter prison sentence if he pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault in Chautauqua County Court. The deal would also have required him to plead guilty to a terrorism-related federal charge, which was not yet filed at the time.

Both the state and federal cases will now proceed separately, with jury selection for the state case scheduled for October 15.

The author spent years in hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989, calling for his death over the novel “The Satanic Verses,” which Khomeini deemed blasphemous. Rushdie resurfaced publicly in the late 1990s.

Matar, born in the U.S. and holding dual citizenship with Lebanon, where his parents are from, lived in New Jersey before the attack. His mother noted that he became withdrawn and moody after visiting his father in Lebanon in 2018.

The attack on Rushdie raised concerns about whether he had adequate security, given the ongoing death threats. A state police trooper and county sheriff's deputy were assigned to the lecture. In 1991, a Japanese translator of “The Satanic Verses” was killed, and an Italian translator survived a knife attack the same year. In 1993, the book’s Norwegian publisher was shot three times but survived.
The investigation into Rushdie’s stabbing is partly focused on whether Matar acted alone or had connections with militant or religious groups.

(With inputs from Agency)