The man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie more than a dozen times, Hadi Matar, does not want the offer of a plea deal in his attempted murder trial, according to his lawyer. Matar, who is alleged to have repeatedly stabbed Rushdie on Aug. 21, 2022, denied a plea bargain from Judge David Foley to knock five years off his potential 25-year sentence. “What have I got to lose?,” Matar reportedly told his lawyer, Nathan Barone, according to NBC. The deal would’ve meant Matar plead guilty to a separate federal charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, which is yet to be filed but could see Matar slapped with an additional 20 years. Matar previously posted social media support for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps but in an interview with the New York Post in 2022, would not reveal his motive for the attack, including whether it had anything to do a fatwa issued on Rushdie by the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 over the author’s book The Satanic Verses. “He came into Chautauqua County and then committed this crime, which is not just a crime against a person, but it’s also a crime against a concept of freedom of speech,” Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said. Matar has been held without bail since 2022. Judge David Foley has asked for a definitive answer on the plea deal at his next appearance, on July 2, accoridng to NBC.
