Hadi Matar, 28, was convicted by a federal jury on charges of supporting Hezbollah and “committing a terrorist act” after he attacked writer Salman Rushdie at a cultural center in New York in August 2022. US Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said that the American citizen of Lebanese origin, Hadi Matar, “chose to align his values with the terrorist values of Iran’s leaders,” adding that the accused spent months planning the stabbing operation that almost killed Rushdie and caused him to lose sight in one eye. The prosecution believes that the motive behind Matar's attack was the fatwa issued by the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 to kill Rushdie because of his insults to the Prophet Muhammad in his novel "The Satanic Verses."