Novelist Salman Rushdie attends the premiere of the documentary film “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie” during the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 25, 2026, at The Ray in Park City, Utah. (AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello, File)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-07-22T04:02:21Z<\/p>\n
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 The man who was convicted of trying to kill Salman Rushdie<\/a><\/span> is going on trial again, this time in a federal terrorism case that is probing deeper into what allegedly motivated the stabbing on a lecture stage<\/a><\/span> in 2022. <\/p>\n Opening statements are set for Wednesday in Hadi Matar\u2019s trial in the federal courthouse in Buffalo, New York. It\u2019s about 70 miles (113 km) from the arts and intellectual retreat<\/a><\/span> where the renowned author and free-speech advocate was attacked as he was about to discuss writer safety<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n The Booker Prize-winning Rushdie, now 79, is expected to be among the first witnesses, again describing the stabbing that nearly killed him and left him blind in one eye. He has recounted the moment and his lengthy recovery in testimony<\/a><\/span> at Matar\u2019s state-court attempted murder trial, in a memoir<\/a><\/span> and in multiple interviews.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that happens when you get really a close-up look at death \u2014 that\u2019s as close as you can get without actually doing the dance of death and heading off to nowhere \u2014 it stays with you,\u201d he told The Associated Press<\/a><\/span> in 2024. \u201cThere\u2019s a shadow.\u201d <\/p>\n Matar, 28, already is serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence<\/a><\/span> on a state-level attempted murder and assault conviction. That case focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself; the federal one delves more into questions of motive. <\/p>\n Matar has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence. <\/p>\n Prosecutors have argued that he was acting out of loyalty to Iran\u2019s theocratic government and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group after the Islamic Republic\u2019s late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini<\/a><\/span> called for Rushdie\u2019s death because of his 1988 novel \u201cThe Satanic Verses.\u201d <\/p>\n