Jury convicts Salman Rushdie attacker on US terrorism charges
What's next: Hadi Matar is set for sentencing Nov. 3 and could receive life in prison on top of a 25-year state term.
A federal jury in Buffalo convicted Hadi Matar on terrorism charges tied to the 2022 knife attack that left author Salman Rushdie blind in one eye. Jurors found Matar guilty of engaging in transnational terrorism and of trying to provide material support to Hezbollah after about two hours of deliberations. Prosecutors argued Matar spent more than a year studying the fatwa issued after Rushdie's 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" before attacking him at the Chautauqua Institution in Mayville, New York. Matar, 28, was already convicted in New York state court of attempted murder and is serving a 25-year sentence. He now faces a possible life sentence at federal sentencing on Nov. 3.