A federal jury found 28-year-old Hadi Matar guilty on all three terrorism-related counts Wednesday stemming from the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie at Chautauqua Institution. Matar, who is already serving a 25-year state sentence for attempted murder, now faces up to life in federal prison.
The verdict came after roughly three hours of deliberations. Jurors convicted Matar on all three federal counts: attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah, providing material support to terrorists and engaging in an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
"The evidence that was put before the jury was overwhelming," Michael DiGiacomo, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, said following the verdict. "They built the puzzle and left it complete, I believe, for the jury to reach the decision that they reached in such a short period of time."
The case went to jurors Wednesday, one day after a judge denied a defense request to dismiss the charges for insufficient evidence.
Prosecutors presented 87 exhibits containing hundreds of individual items that they said showed Matar attacked Rushdie to carry out a 1989 fatwa — or religious edict — issued by Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and later endorsed by Hezbollah.
“The defendant was hunting prey that day, and his prey was Salman Rushdie,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Lynch told jurors during closing arguments.
Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone argued the government relied on assumptions and evidence taken out of context and did not prove Matar coordinated with, received instructions from, or offered assistance to Hezbollah.
Barone said Matar acted independently, influenced by his personal religious beliefs, mental state and home life. He also disputed that the attack was a carefully planned assassination.
“He had no real idea of what he was going to do that day,” Barone told jurors, theorizing that the "slashes and stabs" Matar inflicted on Rushdie reflected "a fit" or pent-up aggression as opposed to a murder attempt.
But Allen Davis, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Buffalo Field Office, had a different perspective on the compelling evidence against Matar.
“The evidence presented in the trial showed this attack was not spontaneous," he said following the verdict announcement. "It was deliberate. It was researched. It was planned. It was motivated by violent extremist ideology. For more than a year, the defendant researched a decades-old fatwa, communicated with individuals overseas about carrying it out, and embraced the propaganda and symbols of Hezbollah before traveling to Western New York to commit this violent act.”
Matar declined to testify and the defense called no witnesses.
Rushdie testified last Thursday about the attack, which left him blind in his right eye.
DiGiacomo noted the impact of that testimony.
“It's very powerful, and at the end, at some point, Mr. Rushdie removed his glasses so the jury could see the extent of the injury to his eye that he no longer has vision in," DiGiacomo said. "That's very moving and very powerful testimony from any victim in any type of case.”
Prosecution's closing argument
Federal prosecutors replayed the graphic Aug. 12, 2022 knife attack from several angles, showing Matar walk toward the stage of the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater and then sprint toward a seated Rushdie, stabbing him in multiple parts of his body before being restrained by bystanders. That intervention, Lynch argued to the jury, was the only factor that prevented Matar from carrying out his murder attempt.
"Salman Rushdie would've died on that stage because the defendant wouldn't have stopped stabbing him," Lynch said.
Prosecutors said Matar had stalked Rushdie for two years. They alleged he knew the address of Rushdie’s New York literary agent, researched bars the author frequented in Manhattan and knew Rushdie lived near and taught at New York University. They also pointed to messages on the messaging platform Telegram discussing Rushdie’s Chautauqua appearance.
Prosecutors linked Matar’s motives to Khomeini’s fatwa and to a 2006 speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah endorsing it. Nasrallah argued that, had the death order against Rushdie been carried out, European newspapers would not later have published cartoons mocking Islamic religious figures.
Two days before the attack, Matar — then 24 years old — created a will and sent it to a sheikh in Canada. The day of the attack, he screenshotted two "August Martyrs," members of Hezbollah who had died in the month of August in relation to furthering the mission of the organization.
To establish the interstate-commerce element of one count, prosecutors pointed to Rushdie’s testimony that the attack prevented him from touring for his novel “Victory City.”
Conduct transcending international boundaries
Prosecutors said the international element was demonstrated through encouragement and direction originating outside the United States.
They showed the 1989 video of Khomeini issuing the fatwa against Rushdie and those involved in publishing his book. Prosecutors reminded jurors of the photographs found on a wall beside Matar’s bed.
“In Buffalo, a lot of kids have Josh Allen on their walls because they idolize him," Lynch said. “The defendant idolized the ayatollahs.”
Prosecutors said Matar created a video called "Rushdie Fatwa 2.0" in which he spliced together videos of the original fatwa, imagery and footage of Rushdie, and Nasrallah's 2006 call to action. That video also contained an Iranian government webpage showing that Khomeini’s fatwa remained in effect and had been reaffirmed in 2017, and a video of someone explaining that anyone who insults the personality of the Prophet Muhammad should be killed.
Defense closing argument
“Fear has no place in this courtroom, and fear has no place in any courtroom in the United States,” Barone said, before accusing the government of "fearmongering" to encourage a guilty verdict against Matar.
Defense attorneys said the circumstantial evidence presented by federal prosecutors was based on "speculation, suspicions, best guesses and taking that ultimate leap of telling you what Hadi Matar was thinking — or not thinking — on August 12, 2022.”
Barone argued that the government could not escape the fact that Matar was a practicing Muslim. He said Matar’s actions arose from his personal religious beliefs, not from Hezbollah or an effort to assist a foreign terrorist organization.
He said “The Satanic Verses” had angered members of the Muslim community and practicing Muslims such as Matar took the issue seriously.
The defense argued prosecutors had not established that Matar wrote the notebooks or Post-it notes recovered from the apartment. Barone also emphasized investigators found no direct communications between Matar and Hezbollah.
Prosecutors' rebuttal
Lynch hit back at claims of fearmongering, assuring the jury that the government had presented "facts, not fear."
He reminded jurors to consider the fact that Matar "stalked" Rushdie for years, weighing the pros and cons of murdering him while gathering information of his whereabouts and personal life.
Lynch argued the evidence demonstrated Hezbollah’s influence on Matar, even without direct communications between him and the organization.
“Circumstantial evidence is just as powerful as direct evidence," he told the jury.
Furthermore, prosecutors emphasized that two of the three federal counts did not require a direct connection to Hezbollah.
BTPM's Michael Mroziak contributed to this story.
