The man charged with stabbing Salman Rushdie has rejected a plea deal.
Hadi Matar, the man charged with stabbing author Salman Rushdie, arrives for an arraignment at the Chautauqua County Courthouse, Aug. 13, 2022, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar rejected a plea deal Tuesday, July 2, 2024, that would have shortened his state prison term but exposed him to a federal terrorism-related charge, the suspect's lawyer said.two years ago, rejected a plea deal that would have shortened his sentence in a state prison on Tuesday.
If Matar had agreed to the deal, he would have served up to 20 years in state prison; without the plea deal, he faces up to 25 years.reports that the deal also included a federal charge of trying to give material support to a terrorist organization, which could trigger an additional 20 years in prison. Matar, who was born in the U.S. but also has Lebanese citizenship, has been held without bail since the stabbing in the summer of 2022.
Rushdie was giving a lecture at New York’s Chautauqua Institution when a man stormed the stage and stabbed the author more than a dozen times, blinding him in one eye. Authorities arrested and charged Matar, who lived in Fairview, New Jersey, that day. Matar’s mother saw a change in her son after a trip to Lebanon, where he visited his father in 2018, according to, sparked the ire of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa the next year calling for Rushdie’s death.
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