Rushdie Welcomes Attacker’s Maximum Sentence
Sir Salman Rushdie has expressed satisfaction with the 25-year prison sentence handed to the man who tried to kill him in 2022, calling it a just outcome and a chance for reflection.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the acclaimed author said he was “pleased” that Hadi Matar received the maximum sentence for the brutal knife attack that left Rushdie blind in one eye, with a damaged liver and a paralysed hand caused by nerve injuries.
“I hope he uses the time to reflect upon his deeds,” said Rushdie.
The attack occurred while Rushdie was on stage for a lecture in New York. In response, he later published Knife, a memoir that chronicles the incident and his recovery.
The book includes a fictionalised conversation with his attacker—an imagined exchange Rushdie created in the absence of meaningful answers from Matar.
“I thought if I really met him, I wouldn’t get much out of him,” Rushdie explained. “So I imagined the dialogue myself, probably better than a real conversation would have gone.”
The imagined scene was adapted into an AI animation by BBC filmmaker and former creative director Alan Yentob for a documentary. Rushdie described the visual result as “startling” and impactful.
Rushdie also used the opportunity to pay tribute to Yentob, who died on Saturday. He described Yentob as “a true friend and a towering figure in British media,” adding, “He was a great programme maker and champion of the arts. His legacy is colossal.”
The pair shared both a professional relationship and personal friendship, including a memorable spoof arm-wrestling scene they filmed together. “People keep asking who won,” Rushdie joked, “but it was a complete fraud—no one won.”
Looking ahead, Rushdie will publish a new short story collection titled The Eleventh Hour in November, marking his first work of fiction since the attack.
The stabbing came more than three decades after the release of his controversial novel The Satanic Verses, which led to longstanding death threats and forced Rushdie into years of seclusion.