In the US, the attacker of the writer Salman Rushdie was sentenced to 25 years

The man who stabbed writer Salman Rushdie in New York in 2022 has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

This is reported by the Associated Press.

A jury found 27-year-old Hadi Matar guilty of attempted murder and assault back in February.

Salman Rushdie did not return to court in western New York for his sentencing, but he filed a statement about the impact of the crime. The 77-year-old writer took the stand as a key witness in his trial, saying he believed he was doomed to die when he was attacked more than a dozen times in the head and torso by a masked assailant. The attack came as he was about to be introduced on stage at the Chautauqua Institute, where he was scheduled to speak about the safety of writers.

Before the verdict was handed down, Matar stood up and gave a speech about free speech, in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.

Matar received the maximum sentence of 25 years for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences are to run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same incident.

What preceded

In 1988, Iran banned Salman Rushdieʼs book The Satanic Verses, which many Muslims consider blasphemous. In 1989, Iranʼs then-leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a decree calling for Rushdieʼs death. Iran is offering a $3.3 million reward for the writerʼs assassination.

In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation increased the reward for Rushdieʼs assassination from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.

On August 12, 2022, while Rushdie was giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Educational Center in New York City, a man climbed onto the stage and began punching and stabbing the writer. The attacker was apprehended by police.

The writerʼs literary agent, Andrew Wylie, said the author had lost one eye and the use of his hand. He said Rushdie had suffered three serious wounds to the neck and 15 more to the chest and torso.

In October 2022, the United States imposed sanctions against an Iranian organization that promised money for the murder of writer Salman Rushdie.

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