Salman Rushdie's attacker charged with 'terrorism in the name of Hezbollah'

Photo: Gene J. Puskar Archives Associated Press Defense attorney Hadi Matar speaks in Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, N.Y., on Aug. 13, 2022.

Nicolas Revise – Agence France-Presse in New York

Published yesterday at 5:24 p.m. Updated yesterday at 6:40 p.m.

• United States

American justice on Wednesday pointed the finger at the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement Hezbollah by indicting for “terrorism” a young American-Lebanese who had almost assassinated the American-British writer Salman Rushdie in New York State in 2022.

This is the first time that Washington has so precisely cited the Shiite organization supported by Tehran for the knife attack against Mr. Rushdie perpetrated by Hadi Matar on August 12, 2022, during a literary conference on the shores of the American Great Lakes which could have cost the life of the world famous author of Satanic Verses released in 1988.

“By trying to kill Salman Rushdie [in the state] of New York in 2022, Hadi Matar perpetrated an act of terrorism in the name of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization linked to the Iranian regime,” the Minister of Defense accused in a statement. Justice Merrick Garland.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by many countries, including the United States, those of the European Union, Canada, United Kingdom and a majority of the member states of the Arab League.

And since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip in Last October, Hezbollah exchanged daily cross-border fire with the Jewish state which raised fears of a larger-scale regional war.

To (re)read

• “The Knife”: for Salman Rushdie, singing is stronger than death
• Chronicle | The Blood of Salman Rushdie
• Editorial | Salman Rushdie, free thinker

“The Department of Justice will pursue those who commit acts of violence on behalf of terrorist groups and who undermine the fundamental freedoms enshrined in our Constitution,” Minister Garland warned.

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Hadi Matar, a 26-year-old American also Lebanese, who lived in New Jersey in the suburbs of the megacity of New York, has already been prosecuted and detained for almost two years by the local justice system of New York State, who suspects him of being a Hezbollah sympathizer.

Indicted for “terrorism”

The young man was indicted a week ago at the federal level by a “grand jury” – citizens who participate in the criminal investigation phase – on three counts, including “supporting a foreign terrorist organization,” according to a July 17 court document made public Wednesday by the federal court of the western jurisdiction of the State of New York.

Mr. Matar had pleaded “not guilty” to “attempted murder” and “assault” before the local courts, paving the way for a trial that could begin on October 15, according to the American press.

The accused faces 25 years in prison.

The procedure before the federal courts is a separate process.

On August 12, 2022, at the start of a literary conference in a bucolic setting in the small town of Chautauqua, on the shores of the Great Lakes, Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage about ten times in the neck, face, and stomach by Hadi Matar, who was subdued.

After a long convalescence, Salman Rushdie, 77, lost the sight in his right eye and now wears a black lens on his glasses.

“The Knife”

He recounted this attack and shared his thoughts on death and love in The Knife published in April.

Born in Bombay, India in June 1947, Salman Rushdie published his first novel Grimus in 1975.

Author of around fifteen novels, stories for young people, short stories and essays, he received the Booker Prize in 1981 , one of the most prestigious literary awards for Midnight's Children.

The British writer had set a part of the Muslim world ablaze with the publication of Satanic Versesin 1988, leading the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, to issue a fatwa in 1989 calling for his assassination.

Mr. Rushdie had been forced to live in hiding and under police protection, going from hiding place to hiding place.

Residing in New York City for more than 20 years and naturalized American , he had regained freedom of movement in recent years and even said he felt safe again in the United States, before the attack in the summer of 2022.