Matar was determined to have committed a second-degree attempted murder for an attack on a famous novelist.
Hadi Mathal, who stabbed and partially blinded award-winning novelist Salman Rushdi at an event in New York, committed the crime of attempted murder.
The ju umpire ruled a verdict on Friday for Mathal’s attack on Rushdee at an Arts Institute event in August 2022.
The author of the Devil’s Poem, 77, was stabbed with a knife multiple times on his head, neck, torso and left hand, blinded his right eye, injured his liver and intestines, requiring emergency surgery and months of recovery.
Mathal, 27, can be seen in a video of the attack rushing the Chotouka Society’s stage as Rushdy was featured in the audience for a talk about keeping writers safe from harm. Some videos were shown to the ju apprentice during seven days of testimony.
Mathal was found guilty of attempted murder and second attack in the second degree for stabbing Henry Reese, the co-founder of Pittsburgh’s City of Exiles. morning.
He was sentenced on April 23rd and faced a maximum of 25 years in prison.
Nathaniel Barone, the official defense attorney representing Mathal, said his client was disappointed with the verdict.
“I think this video was very damaging to Mr Matal,” Barone said outside the courtroom, referring to the video of the attacks that have been repeatedly shown to the ju apprentice. “It’s an old expression. The picture is worth a thousand words.”
When he was handcuffed out of court, Matar quietly issued “Free Palestine” and reflected the comments he made frequently while in and out of trial.
Rushdi, a New York-based British American, born in the Indian Muslim Kashmir family, has faced the threat of death since the publication of his novel, The Devil’s Poem, in 1988.
After the knife attack, American Lebanon Mathal told the New York Post that he assaulted Rushdi for attacking Islam.
Mathal also faces federal charges filed by prosecutors, accusing him of trying to kill Rushdy as a terrorist act and providing material support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which the US designates as a terrorist organization. It’s. Hezbollah supported Khomeini’s Fatwa against Rushdee.
Matar is expected to face these charges at another trial in Buffalo.
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