Hadi Matar, the man who attempted to murder author Salman Rushdie in 2022, was convicted on Wednesday of federal terrorism charges.
A jury found Matar guilty of all charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. He was also convicted of providing assistance to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Matar is already serving a 25-year prison sentence for attempted murder, after he was convicted in August 2022. The federal conviction carries a potential life sentence.
Rushdie, a renowned author and Booker Prize winner whose works include Midnight's Children and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, was speaking onstage at a literary event when Matar and stabbed him. Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation centre, suffering life-threatening injuries and ultimately losing an eye.
His novel The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, led to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, supreme leader of Iran at the time, to issue a religious edict calling for his death.
Prosecutors argued that Matar was motivated by the fatwa that was evoked in a 2006 speech by a Hezbollah leader, and that he had planned the attack for years.
The author testified during the trial, describing the attack and crediting a firefighter with saving his life by providing medical care.
