Sir Salman was knifed repeatedly during a public talk in 2022; attacker Hadi Matar, now faces terror charges.
The man who nearly killed celebrated author Sir Salman Rushdie in a frenzied knife attack has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Hadi Matar, 27, was convicted earlier this year of attempted murder and assault after repeatedly stabbing the 77-year-old novelist during a public event in New York.
The court heard how Sir Salman feared for his life as Matar, masked and armed, leapt onto the stage at the Chautauqua Institution in August 2022. The acclaimed Midnight’s Children author was about to speak on writer safety when he was brutally attacked in front of a stunned audience.
More than a dozen stab wounds were inflicted on his head, neck, torso, and left hand, leaving him blind in one eye and causing lasting internal injuries. The assault also injured another man onstage, prompting prosecutors to seek an additional seven-year sentence, though Matar was given the maximum 25-year term for the main charge.
Sir Salman described the moment in court with chilling clarity. “I thought: so it’s over, I’m dying,” he told jurors. “He was upon me in seconds. I didn’t see his face, just the blur of violence.”
The attack left Rushdie hospitalised for 17 days in Pennsylvania, followed by three weeks in rehabilitation in New York City. He later documented the ordeal and his recovery in his 2024 memoir, Knife, which recounts both the savage assault and his painstaking path back to life.
Matar, who appeared unrepentant throughout the trial, is now expected to face separate terrorism-related charges. Prosecutors argue the stabbing was motivated by a decades-old fatwa—a religious decree issued by Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. The fatwa called for Rushdie’s death after the publication of The Satanic Verses, a novel deemed blasphemous by some Muslims.
Though Iran claimed in 1998 it would no longer enforce the edict, Rushdie lived under tight security for years. He only began travelling freely again in the 2000s, appearing at literary events and public readings around the world. The 2022 attack shattered that sense of safety.
The sentence brings a partial sense of justice to an episode that sent shockwaves through the global literary community. But many say the wounds—physical, emotional, and symbolic—run deep. “This wasn’t just an attack on one man,” said a fellow writer in court. “It was an assault on freedom of expression itself.”
Matar’s upcoming trial on terror charges will further examine whether his actions were indeed a calculated effort to carry out a fatwa that once forced Rushdie into hiding and turned him into an icon of defiance.
As for Sir Salman, his road to recovery continues. Though visibly changed by the attack, he has vowed to keep writing. “I’m still here,” he said in a recent interview. “And I intend to stay that way.
