Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie in 2022, has been convicted of federal terrorism charges, potentially leading to a life sentence. Matar, 28, was found guilty on Wednesday by a US District Court jury in Buffalo, New York, on all counts, including attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah, a US-designated terrorist organization, engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries, and providing material support to terrorists. He is already serving a 25-year prison term on state charges of attempted murder for the assault.

The jury deliberated for two hours before returning the verdict. The trial included testimony from Rushdie, 79, the Booker Prize-winning author of "Midnight's Children." The defense called no witnesses.

Rushdie had been facing threats since the 1988 publication of his novel "The Satanic Verses." Iran's then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, denounced the book as blasphemous and issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for Rushdie's death. This edict led to a bounty and subsequent violence, including the 1991 murder of Rushdie's Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi.

The Iranian government distanced itself from the fatwa in 1998, but Hezbollah's secretary general endorsed it in 2006, and Khomeini's successor, Ali Khamenei, reaffirmed it in 2017, according to the US Attorney's Office.

Evidence presented at the trial indicated that Matar researched the fatwa for over a year before attacking Rushdie on August 12, 2022. The assault occurred while Rushdie was speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in Mayville, New York. Rushdie, who spent the first decade of the fatwa in hiding, was stabbed more than a dozen times in the head, neck, torso, and left hand. He lost sight in his right eye and suffered internal organ damage. Another person was also injured in the attack, and audience members intervened to subdue Matar.

Matar, a US citizen with Lebanese citizenship, lived in Fairview, New Jersey. He was found guilty of attempted murder in a New York state court in February 2025 and sentenced to 25 years in prison three months later. Rushdie, born in India to a Muslim family, later became a British and US citizen. After living in seclusion for much of the 1990s, he adopted a more public profile and moved to New York City more than two decades ago.

Matar's sentencing on the federal charges is scheduled for November 3.