Rushdie attacker indicted on terrorism charges for supporting Hezbollah

July 24 (UPI) -- Hadi Matar, the 26-year-old man accused of blinding Salman Rushdie in a monomaniac knife attack in 2022, was indicted Thursday on terrorism charges, with prosecutors alleging he was trying to kill the author to support Iran-backed Hezbollah .

"We allege that in attempting to murder Salman Rushdie in New York in 2022, Hadi Matar committed an act of terrorism in the name of Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization aligned with the Iranian regime," Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday in a statement .

"The Justice Department will prosecute those who perpetrate violence in the name of terrorist groups and undermine the basic freedoms enshrined in our Constitution."

Rushdie, 77, has been an enemy of Iran since the publication of The Satanic Verses in September of 1988, with Tehran's then spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini , issuing a fatwa -- meaning a religious ruling or order -- for the execution of the famed author and anyone else involved in the novel's publication.

The three-count indictment charging Matar with engaging in an act of terrorism was returned Wednesday by a New Jersey grand jury, accusing the New Jersey man of providing Hezbollah with "material assistance" between September 2020 and August 2022 by attempting to carry out the fatwa as he understood it to have been issued by the Lebanese-based Iran proxy militia, which has been designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization since October 1997.

According to the court document, the connection to Hezbollah is a 2006 speech by its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah , who said he supported the fatwa placed on Rushdie's life.

The Indian-born British-American author was stabbed the morning of Aug. 12, 2022, as he was being introduced onstage at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua County, N.Y., right before he was to give a speech.

Authorities have said that Matar had traveled to the theatre with the purpose of killing Rushdie, who lost sight in his right eye and the use of one hand in the attack.

He underwent surgery and was placed on a ventilator. He would turn the experience into the memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder , which was published in April.

Matar is also facing an indictment in New York where the trial, originally scheduled for January, was delayed as his lawyers successfully argued that they are entitled to preview Rushdie's book, which at the time had yet to be published, as well as his notes before litigation could begin.

If found guilty under the New Jersey indictment, Matar could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon and is being held pending a detention hearing on Aug. 7.

Rushdie famously spent years in hiding after the fatwa was issued, with several others involved in the creation of his book becoming victims.

According to the Wilson Center , Ettore Capriolo, the book's Italian translator was stabbed in 1991 and survived. Its Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, was not as fortunate and was stabbed to death just days later. The novel's Norwegian publisher, William Nygaard, was shot in 1993 and also survived.