Odisha News, Odisha Latest news, Odisha Daily - OrissaPOST
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
No Result
View All Result
OrissaPOST - Odisha Latest news, English Daily -
No Result
View All Result

Man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie on stage sentenced to 25 years in prison

AP
Updated: May 16th, 2025, 21:17 IST
in Home News, International
0
Salman Rushide

Pic- IANS

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare on Linkedin

Mayville (US): The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to serve 25 years in prison.

A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February.

Also Read

Pic credit: cnbc

U.S. Treasury Secretary signals new trade deals ahead of July 9 tariff hike deadline

3 hours ago

Russia’s ex-minister dies by suicide after being dismissed, officials say.

3 hours ago

Rushdie did not return to court to the western New York courtroom for his assailant’s sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement.

During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety.

Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.

“Salman Rushdie wants to disrespect other people,” said Matar, clad in white-striped jail clothing and wearing handcuffs. “He wants to be a bully, he wants to bully other people. I don’t agree with that.”

Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.

In requesting the maximum sentence, Schmidt told the judge that Matar “chose this. He designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 people who were there to watch it.”

Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed out that Matar had an otherwise clean criminal record and disputed that the people in the audience should be considered victims, suggesting that a sentence of 12 years would be appropriate.

“Every day since then, for the last couple of years, this case has been an international publicity sponge,” Barone said. “There was no presumption, ever, of innocence for Mr Matar from the very beginning.”

Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation centre. The author of “Midnight’s Children,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and “Victory City” detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, “Knife.”

Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges.

While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive.

Authorities said Matar, a US citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death when he travelled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target Rushdie at the summer retreat about 112.6 kilometres southwest of Buffalo.

Matar believed the fatwa, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, according to federal prosecutors.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa after publication of Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Rushdie spent years in hiding, but after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree he travelled freely over the past quarter century.

Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries.

Video of the assault, captured by the venue’s cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, Rushdie is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them.

Jurors in Matar’s first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.

AP

Tags: IndiaSalman RushdieUSwriter
ShareTweetSendShare
Suggest A Correction

Enter your email to get our daily news in your inbox.

 

OrissaPOST epaper Sunday POST OrissaPOST epaper

Click Here: Plastic Free Odisha

#MyPaperBagChallenge

Spinoj Pattnaik

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Aishwarya Ranjan Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Tabish Maaz

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Narendra Kumar

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Nishikant Rout

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Adyasha Priyadarsani Sendha

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Rajashree Manasa Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Tapaswini Mallick

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Diptiranjan Biswal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Bijswajit Pradhan

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

D Rama Rao

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pratik Kumar

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Manas Samanta

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sarfraz Ahmad

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pratik Kumar Ghibela

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sarmistha Nayak

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Mrutyunjaya Behera

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Rajashree Pravati Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Praptimayee Biswal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Smitarani Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Aman Kumar Barisal

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Akriti Negi

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Jhili Jena

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ramakanta Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Faiza Firdous

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Jyotshna Mayee Pattnaik

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Matrumangal Jena

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ipsita

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ramakanta Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pragyan Priyambada

December 12, 2019

Archives

Editorial

Acknowledge Failure

Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh
July 7, 2025

Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh’s candid revelations about Operation Sindoor at a FICCI event ‘New...

Read more

Politics of Philosophy

AAKAR PATEL
July 6, 2025

The BJP’s constitution (Article 3) says, “Integral Humanism shall be the philosophy of the party.” The party’s membership form has...

Read more

India’s Spy Shift

July 5, 2025

India’s espionage architecture is quietly shifting. The appointment of Parag Jain as the new chief of RAW comes at a...

Read more

Hungary Lessons

Hungary
July 2, 2025

Revolting against oppression and seeking freedom is ingrained in human nature, something that a repressive regime finds out sooner or...

Read more
  • Home
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
Developed By Ratna Technology

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

  • News in Odia
  • Orissa POST Epaper
  • Video
  • Home
  • Trending
  • Metro
  • State
  • Odisha Special
  • National
  • International
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Entertainment
  • Horoscope
  • Careers
  • Feature
  • Today’s Pic
  • Opinion
  • Sci-Tech
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

    • News in Odia
    • Orissa POST Epaper
    • Video
    • Home
    • Trending
    • Metro
    • State
    • Odisha Special
    • National
    • International
    • Sports
    • Business
    • Editorial
    • Entertainment
    • Horoscope
    • Careers
    • Feature
    • Today’s Pic
    • Opinion
    • Sci-Tech
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Jobs

    © 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST