Hadi Matar, 27, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2022 stabbing attack on author Salman Rushdie during a lecture in New York.

Rushdie, now 77, suffered serious injuries including partial blindness and nerve damage.

Matar, who also injured a moderator, received an additional 7-year sentence to run concurrently.

Prosecutors say the attack was motivated by a fatwa issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 over Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, NPR has reported.

Matar faces separate federal terrorism charges that could result in a life sentence.

Written by B.C. Begley