BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The man who was convicted of trying to kill Salman Rushdie is going on trial again, this time in a federal terrorism case that is probing deeper into what allegedly motivated the stabbing on a lecture stage in 2022. Opening statements are set for Wednesday in Hadi Matar’s trial in the federal courthouse in Buffalo, New York. It’s about 70 miles (113 km) from the arts and intellectual retreat where the renowned author and free-speech advocate was attacked as he was about to discuss writer safety. The Booker Prize-winning Rushdie, now 79, is expected to be among the first witnesses, again describing the stabbing that nearly killed him and left him blind in one eye. He has recounted the moment and his lengthy recovery in testimony at Matar’s state-court attempted murder trial, in a memoir and in multiple interviews.“The thing that happens when you get really a close-up look at death — that’s as close as you can get without actually doing the dance of death and heading off to nowhere — it stays with you,” he told The Associated Press in 2024. “There’s a shadow.”
Matar, 28, already is serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on a state-level attempted murder and assault conviction. That case focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself; the federal one delves more into questions of motive. Matar has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence.
