Federal prosecutors are investigating whether the Muslim fanatic accused of repeatedly beating Salman Rushdie on stage last year had ties to any foreign government or terrorist group, according to a report.
Chautauqua District Attorney Jason Schmidt, who oversaw the New York state case against 25-year-old Hadi Matar, told Semafor that the US Attorney’s Office has launched a separate investigation into the suspect’s possible links to international organizations.
Matar, the son of Lebanese immigrants living in New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to assault and attempted murder charges in the frenzied attack on the acclaimed British-American author at a literary festival in upstate New York last August.
Rushdie, 75, who was the target of a famous Islamic death edict in 1989 over his book “The Satanic Verses,” was left blind in his right eye.
Schmidt said his office is preparing for Matar’s trial, which could begin as early as next year.
Hadi Matar, 25, who is alleged to have almost killed the famous author Salman Rushdie, is reportedly being investigated by the Department of Justice regarding his potential ties to foreign governments or terrorist groups. And Cappellazzo
But the Justice Department’s concern, which Schmidt said was beyond his jurisdiction and above his “pay grade,” is whether Matar, who is known to have spent time in Lebanon, may have been radicalized or trained by the Islamist militant group Hezbollah.
At the time of his arrest on August 12, 2022, Matar was found to be carrying a fake driver’s license bearing the name of a top Hezbollah commander.
“There are some areas where we have to confine ourselves to the four corners of the charge that we have laid out, which is basically the charge of ‘attempted murder in the second degree’. That’s our top count,” Schmidt told the outlet. “That takes us away from some of the basic motivations that go into intention. Some of that has been removed from us in our jurisdiction, and that’s something that the US Attorney’s Office has looked at and they’re dealing with.”
Rushdie, 75, lost the sight in his right eye after being stabbed multiple times at a literary festival in upstate New York last August. PA image via Getty Images
The DOJ did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment on Friday.
The main question from the attack is whether Matar was a lone wolf or acting on behalf of Hezbollah or the Iranian regime.
Matar’s mother, Silvana Fardos, has told the New York Times that her son went to Lebanon in 2018 and likely stayed with his father in the town of Yaroun, which is known to be controlled by Hezbollah.
Pro-Iranian Hezbollah fundamentalists burned an effigy of Rushdie on February 26, 1989, accusing him of blasphemy for his book “The Satanic Verses.” AFP via Getty Images
Matar returned from the trip a Shiite fanatic devoted to Iran’s Islamic revolution, according to his mother, who publicly rejected him after the attack on Rushdie.
The famous victim — and Indian-born Booker Prize winner — spent years in hiding with police protection after Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for his death for allegedly blaspheming the novel “The Satanic Verses. “
Almost a decade later, the Iranian government distanced itself from the order, saying it would not support any effort to kill Rushdie – but the fatwa was never officially rescinded.
In an exclusive prison interview with The Post just days after his arrest, Matar praised the late Khomeini as a “great man” but would not say whether he was inspired by his fatwa against Rushdie.
The suspect denied any contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and indicated that he acted alone when he decided to drive to Chautauqua after coming across a tweet about Rushdie’s upcoming visit.
“I don’t like that person. I don’t think he’s a very good person,” he said of the “Midnight’s Children” writer. “I do not like him. I don’t like him very much. He is someone who attacks Islam, he attacks their faith, their belief system.”
Tehran denied any role in the near-fatal attack on Rushdie last year but said, “Regarding the attack on Salman Rushdie in America, we do not consider anyone to be blamed, blamed or even condemned, except [Rushdie] himself and his supporters.”
Rushdie, who also suffered nerve damage to his hands, did not blame any foreign entity for the stabbing that nearly ended his life.
Asked about Matar’s upcoming trial, Rushdie told BBC News in July that he was not sure if he could be “bothered” to face him in court.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
