Mayville: The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prize winning author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to serve 25 years in prison. A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February.
Rushdie did not return to the western New York courtroom for his assailant’s sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety.
Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.
Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
