Salman Rushdie attacker charged with supporting Hezbollah

The man accused of trying to kill the author Salman Rushdie has been charged with supporting Hezbollah and acting on their behalf in the suspected assassination.

Hadi Matar, a 26-year-old American of Lebanese descent, has already been charged with second-degree attempted murder and assault for the multiple stabbing of Rushdie in 2022.

Now, a fresh indictment unsealed on Wednesday said Matar provided “material support and resources” to the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon, between September 2020 and the day of the stabbing.

“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 in a separate statement.

Mr Rushdie was set to give a lecture on stage at an educational retreat near Lake Erie in western New York when he was stabbed 12 times in 27 seconds, the author recalled. He has since lost sight in one eye.

It followed more than three decades of threats on his life ever since Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie for his controversial novel The Satanic Verses.

The then-Iranian supreme leader declared the book blasphemous for its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, whose life is part-fictionalised in the book.

Matar was arrested at the scene of the stabbing after members of the audience wrestled him to the ground.

The Justice Department said on Wednesday that between September 2020 and the summer of the attack, Matar sought to provide material support to Hezbollah by trying to carry out the fatwa against Rushdie.

The other two counts in the indictment charge Matar with engaging in an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and providing material support to terrorists.

“The defendant attempted to carry out a fatwa endorsed by Hezbollah that called for the death of Salman Rushdie,” said FBI director Christopher Wray.

Hezbollah is classified as a terrorist organisation by countries including the United States, Britain and most members of the Arab League.

Since Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza, the group has fired missiles into Israel almost daily in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Matar could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the charges he already faces of attempted murder and assault. He has pleaded not guilty.

Source » msn.com