Hadi Matar, charged with severely injuring author Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack, at the Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, on Friday. Photo: AP
Mayville: A New Jersey man was convicted Friday of attempted murder and assault for stabbing author Salman Rushdie multiple times on a New York lecture stage in 2022.
A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty after a little less than two hours of deliberations following a trial in Chautauqua County Court.
Matar ran onto the stage at the Chautauqua Institution where Rushdie was about to speak on August 12, 2022, and stabbed him more than a dozen times before a live audience. The attack left the 77-year-old prizewinning novelist blind in one eye. Another man was injured.
Rushdie was the key witness during seven days of testimony, describing in graphic detail his life-threatening injuries and long and painful recovery. Matar could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.