A New Jersey man who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Sir Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage was sentenced to 25 years in jail on Friday.
Hadi Matar, 27, was convicted of tried homicide and assault earlier this 12 months.
Sir Salman was on stage talking earlier than an viewers in August 2022, when he was stabbed a number of occasions within the face and neck. The assault left him blind in a single eye, injury to his liver and a paralysed hand attributable to nerve injury to his arm.
The assault got here 35 years after Sir Salman’s controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which had lengthy made him the goal of dying threats for its portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.
Matar, who was additionally discovered responsible of assault for wounding the one who was interviewing Sir Salman, Henry Reese, was sentenced to seven years plus three years post-release for that assault.
The sentences should run concurrently as a result of each victims have been injured in the identical occasion, Chautauqua County District Legal professional Jason Schmidt stated on Friday.
Earlier than being sentenced, Matar stood and made an announcement about freedom of speech through which he referred to as Rushdie a hypocrite, in accordance with the Related Press.
“Salman Rushdie needs to disrespect different folks,” stated Matar, clad in white-striped jail clothes and carrying handcuffs. “He needs to be a bully, he needs to bully different folks. I do not agree with that.”
Sir Salman was not within the courtroom for his assailant’s sentencing on Friday.
