Man Accused Of Stabbing Salman Rushdie Rejects Plea Deal

India-West News Desk

NEW YORK, NY – The man accused of stabbing author Salman Rushdie has declined a plea deal that would have reduced his state prison sentence but introduced a federal terrorism-related charge.

Hadi Matar, 26, has been held without bail since the 2022 attack, in which he allegedly stabbed Rushdie multiple times, blinding him in one eye, as the renowned writer was about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.

Matar of New Jersey, turned down the agreement, which would have required him to plead guilty to attempted murder for a maximum state prison sentence of 20 years instead of 25. Additionally, Salman Rushdie would have had to plead guilty to a federal charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, potentially adding another 20 years to his sentence, the AP said.

Salman Rushdie, who recounted the attack and his recovery in a memoir, had previously spent years in hiding after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death over Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses,” considered blasphemous by some Muslims.

Matar, born in the U.S. and holding dual citizenship in Lebanon, became withdrawn and moody after visiting his father in Lebanon in 2018, according to his mother, the AP reported.

Rushdie, who ironically was about to speak on the importance of protecting writers from harm when he was attacked, is on the witness list for Matar’s upcoming trial.