A federal jury convicted Hadi Matar of terrorism charges Wednesday in the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, finding that the New Jersey man acted on behalf of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah when he attacked the novelist on stage at a New York literary event. Matar is already serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence stemming from a separate attempted murder conviction related to the same attack. Matar stabbed Rushdie roughly 15 times in front of a stunned audience, leaving him blind in one eye and with permanent nerve damage to one hand. Matar was born in California to Lebanese immigrant parents and later moved to New Jersey, holding dual U.S.-Lebanese citizenship. Given that Matar is already serving a 25-year state sentence, any federal sentence would likely run alongside or in addition to that term, depending on how Judge Arcara structures it.