Hadi Matara, who attacked the writer Salman Rushdi, was sentenced to 25 years in prison

The District Court in New York sentenced the 27-year-old Hadi Matar to 25 years in prison for attempting to kill Iranian writer Salman Rushdi, as a result of which he lost his right eye. In addition, Matar received 7 years for stab wounds Ralph Henry Riza, moderator of the Lecture of Rushdi, who was next to him at the time of the attack. Both Matar sentences will serve simultaneously. It is reported by The Guardian.

In his last word, Matar said: “Salman Rushdi wants to show disrespect for other people ... He wants to be a bully, he wants to intimidate other people. I do not agree with this. " The lawyer of Matara insisted that the prosecution did not prove that Matar was about to kill Rushdi: in her opinion, the absence of such plans was indicated by the fact that he did not strike at the region of the heart. District Prosecutor Jason Schmidt, arguing his decision to demand maximum punishment for Matar, said that Matar "planned this attack so as to cause maximum damage not only to Mr. Rushdi, but to the whole community, 1,400 people who were present there and watched it."

The attack on Salman Rushdi occurred on August 12, 2022 at his lecture at Chautauqua Instition, immediately after the Rushdi was presented. The writer was injured in the head and neck, one of the blows deprived him of his right eye, he also paralyzed his hand.

Rushdi’s book “Satanic Poems” has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it blasphemous. A year after the ban, the leader of Iran Rohollah Khomeini published a fatwa calling for the death of Rushdi. In 2012, the Iranian Religious Foundation “15 Hordad” increased the Rushdi death from $ 2.8 million to $ 3.3 million. The reward to the man who attacked Rushdi promised the Iranian Imam Khomeini Foundation.

Hadi Matar was born in the United States in a family of immigrants from Lebanon. In 2018, he went to the Middle East, after which, according to the family, he began to be more interested in Islam. He decided to attack Rushdi, having listened to the speech of the former leader of the Lebanese Islamist movement of Hezbollah Hassan Nasellla, uttered in 2006. In it, Nasellla supported Father against Rushdi. Matar admitted that he read “only a couple of pages” from the book “Satanic Poems”.