Hadi Matar, the American-Lebanese young man convicted of attempting to murder author Salman Rushdie, faces new charges in a federal terrorism case that deepens the investigation into the motives of the attack that targeted the globally renowned author with a knife during a lecture in 2022.

Arguments in the new case began Wednesday before the federal court in Buffalo, New York, about 115 kilometers from the artistic and intellectual retreat where Rushdie was attacked.

Rushdie (79 years old) was expected to testify about the details of the stabbing incident that nearly killed him and caused him to lose sight in one eye, noting that he recounted that moment and his long recovery period in his previous court testimonies, as well as in his memoirs and many interviews.

During one of his interviews in 2024, Rushdie said: 'When you stare closely at death — as close as you can get without actually going through it and heading into the unknown — that feeling sticks in your mind. It's like a shadow looming over the place.'

Novelist Salman Rushdie attends the opening of the documentary 'The Knife: The Attempted Assassination of Salman Rushdie' during the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, USA, on January 25, 2026 (AP).

Matar (28 years old) is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in New York on state charges of attempted murder and assault. That case focused mostly on the details of the attack itself, while the federal case delves deeper into the motives of the crime.

Matar has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against him, which include involvement in a cross-border terrorist act. If convicted, he faces a life sentence in prison.

Prosecutors believe Matar acted out of loyalty to the Iranian government and Hezbollah.

The founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had issued a fatwa authorizing the killing of Rushdie because of his novel 'The Satanic Verses,' published in 1988.

Matar's electronic devices contained information about that fatwa. Prosecutors stated in a court filing in 2025 that Matar kept sticky notes documenting his search for Rushdie and potential ways and places to kill him. Federal agents also found images of Khomeini and his successor, the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in his bedroom in New Jersey.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Lynch and Charles Crowley wrote in the filing that 'when he attempted to carry out the fatwa, he believed he was doing so on behalf of Hezbollah, which the U.S. government designates a terrorist organization.'

Commenting on the case, Matar's defense attorney, Nathaniel Barone, said he intends to make a statement during the new trial.

In the years leading up to the trial, Matar's lawyers unsuccessfully sought to exclude some evidence from his social media accounts and other digital activity, arguing that government electronic searches were too broad.

Matar declined to testify in the state court, and it remains unclear whether he will testify in the federal court.

During the sentencing hearing in the state court, Matar asserted that he believes in freedom of speech, but he considered Rushdie a 'hypocrite' who 'wants to bully others.'

Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Lebanon, and he holds dual citizenship of both countries. His mother stated that he became moody and withdrawn after a trip to Lebanon in 2018.

Rushdie was born in India, raised in Britain, and is now a U.S. citizen. He won the Booker Prize in 1981 for his novel 'Midnight's Children.' But his fame peaked with his novel 'The Satanic Verses.'

Khomeini's 1989 fatwa forced Rushdie into hiding for years. Although Iran has not focused on the fatwa in recent years, it has never revoked it.

The Iranian government has denied involvement in the 2022 stabbing incident.

After his novel 'Knife,' which includes his memoirs of the stabbing incident, Rushdie returned to writing, including a collection of stories titled 'The Eleventh Hour' in 2025.