Accused Rushdie assailant seeks deal that may reveal foreign government role in attack

The alleged assailant who nearly fatally stabbed author Salman Rushdie in 2022 is reportedly seeking a plea deal that could reveal whether any foreign governments or terrorist organizations were involved with the attack.

Semafor reports that 24-year-old Hadi Matar, the New Jersey man accused of violently assaulting Rushdie, is working on a plea deal with prosecutors that may "shed light on whether a foreign government or terrorist organization was involved in the attack."

The report notes that Matar is scheduled to go on trial this coming September for his attempted murder of Rushdie and it's not clear what the defendant could offer prosecutors that would get them to offer him a lighter sentence for an allegedly brutal assault that took out Rushdie's right eye.

Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt expressed some skepticism that prosecutors would offer Matar a deal that did not include a murder conviction.

ALSO READ: ‘Journalistic dystopian nightmare’: Inside a Tennessee college media meltdown

“There have been some efforts to try to resolve the matter that’s been promoted by the defense," he told Semafor. "There is some potential for that, we’ll see... but from my standpoint, it has always been…you really want to convict one way or the other on the top charge. We’re going to advocate for the maximum sentence available under our laws.”

Added to this, Schmidt said that he's been conferring with Rushdie about whether he would find a plea deal for his attacker acceptable, and the author has yet to give a definitive answer one way or another.

Rushdie has long been the target of Islamist extremists ever since the Iranian government in the 1980s issued a fatwah against him after the publishing of "The Satanic Verses," a satirical novel that parodies the Koran.