On July 29, 2026, a federal jury in Buffalo, New York, found Hadi Matar guilty of supporting the terrorist group Hezbollah and carrying out an act of international terrorism. This is the first time his 2022 stabbing of the novelist Salman Rushdie was officially linked to a terrorist organization in a federal court (BBC News, New York Times). Matar, 28, had pleaded not guilty to the federal terrorism charges. The conviction on all three charges against him could mean life in federal prison — a much harsher penalty than the 25-year sentence he is already serving from a separate state trial (BBC News, FBI Buffalo).

The attack happened on August 12, 2022, at a literary event in Chautauqua, New York, where Rushdie was about to give a speech. Matar ran onto the stage and stabbed Rushdie 15 times, hitting his cheek, chest, eye, neck, and thigh. The attack left Rushdie partly blind in one eye (BBC News, New York Times).

Matar was born and raised in the United States and lived in Fairview, New Jersey. He was 26 when federal terrorism charges were first filed against him in 2024 (Justice Department, Justice Department OPA). The federal case ran alongside a separate state trial in Chautauqua County court, where Matar faced charges of attempted murder and assault. Rushdie, who was 77 at the time, testified at the state trial in February 2025. On February 21, 2025, Matar was found guilty of attempted murder and given the maximum sentence of 25 years (Reuters, Reuters, FBI Buffalo).

Rushdie also testified at the federal terrorism trial (PBS NewsHour). The prosecution's closing statement was given by Assistant US Attorney Timothy Lynch. Prosecutors argued that Matar was driven by a 2006 speech from the then-leader of Hezbollah, in which he called for a fatwa against Rushdie to be carried out (BBC News). A fatwa is a religious order issued by an Islamic leader. In this case, the fatwa called for Rushdie's death and was issued in 1989 by Iran's religious leader after Rushdie published his novel The Satanic Verses. Hezbollah is listed as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the United Kingdom (BBC News).

The broader context here is that the government chose to prosecute Matar in two separate courts at the same time, each handling a different piece of the story. The state case focused on the violent act itself and secured a maximum 25-year sentence. The federal case tackled the bigger question: was this a terrorist attack, not just a stabbing? To prove that, prosecutors had to connect Matar's actions to Hezbollah's rhetoric and the decades-old fatwa. Their key piece of evidence was the 2006 Hezbollah speech, in which the group's leader told followers to carry out the death order against Rushdie. That a speech from nearly 20 years ago could be used to link a single attacker to a terrorist organization shows how long religious decrees can continue to motivate violence. The Justice Department's decision to pursue that connection in open court suggests prosecutors are increasingly willing to treat ideologically motivated attacks on individuals as terrorism, with the heavier sentences that come with that label.