Photo by Gregory Bacon
Hadi Matar, center, is pictured with members of his defense team.
MAYVILLE – After less than two hours of deliberation, a Chautauqua County jury has found a New Jersey man guilty of both second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault following an attack at Chautauqua Institution two and a half years ago.
For about two weeks jurors heard testimony how Hadi Matar had attempted to kill world-renowned author Salman Rushdie during a presentation he was going to give with Henry Reece while at Chautauqua Institution.
Video evidence showed Matar stabbing Rushdie multiple times on Aug. 12, 2022. Rushdie and Reece were seated on the Amphitheater stage when Matar came up on stage wearing a partial facemask and a black hat, and suddenly began stabbing the award-winning author multiple times.
As Rushdie tried to get away, Matar continued to stab him as Reece, Chautauqua Institution staff and audience members rushed the stage, eventually tackling and subduing the attacker.
During closing arguments, the defense team argued that the prosecution failed to show any sense of intent of Matar to kill Rushdie. Assistant Public Defender Andrew Brautigam tried to argue that this was simply an assault.
“It was upsetting viewing in some ways but they did not give you anything that you would need to determine Mr. Matar’s state of mind,” Brautigam said. “As you deliberate and as you talk in the jury room, there is simply no exhibit that you can point to, nothing you can review to what Mr. Matar intended that day.”
But District Attorney Jason Schmidt fought back against that claim. He noted that just because we can’t read Matar’s mind, that doesn’t mean we don’t know what his intent was in the attack.
He noted how the attack was targeted, how many times Matar stabbed Rushdie, and the locations of the stab wounds, including to his eye, liver and neck.
The defense also attempted to argue that there was no evidence presented during the trial showing Reece received his injuries from Matar, however Schmidt argued against that point as well, showing photographs of Reece with injuries to his face.
Matar faces up to 32 years in jail for the two charges, 25 years for the attempted murder charge and seven years for the assault charge. Schmidt said previously the court may decide to have those two sentences run concurrently.
Matar is also facing federal charges as well, including attempting to provide material support to Hizballah, a designated foreign terrorist organization; engaging in an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries; and providing material support to terrorists.
If found guilty of the federal charges, Matar could be sentenced to life in prison.
A fatwa endorsed by Hizballah called for the death of Rushdie in 1989, following the publication of Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses,” which has been banned in Iran since it was published, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous.
The federal government has alleged that Matar was attempting to carry out that fatwa.
A trial date for those charges have not been announced.