Hadi Matar, the man accused of stabbing novelist Salman Rushdie in western New York in 2022, is now facing a federal charge for allegedly supporting the terrorist group Hezbollah.
According to an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on Wednesday, the 26-year-old from New Jersey “knowingly did attempt to provide material support and resources ... to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely, Hizballah,” around September 2020.
The indictment was filed on July 17.
Matar, a Shi’ite Muslim with Lebanese roots, is also charged with attempted murder and assault at the state level for the Aug. 12, 2022, attack on Rushdie.
Matar rushed the stage at the Chautauqua Institution while the Indian-born British-American writer was giving a speech, stabbing Rushdie in the face, neck, arm and abdomen—14 stab wounds in total. Doctors initially didn’t believe that he would survive. The attack left him blind in one eye.
The event moderator, Henry Reese, was also wounded.
Matar recently rejected a plea deal from prosecutors that would have reduced his time in prison.
His lawyer told the BBC that his client plans to plead not guilty to the new charges. He has been held without bail since the attack.
The state and federal cases will proceed separately to trial. Jury selection for the state trial is set for Oct. 15.
Rushdie’s latest book, Knife: Meditations on an Attempted Murder, released in April, grapples with the attack.
