Death Penalty News

US federal prosecutors said the man convicted of stabbing author Salman Rushdie contacted a person in Iran before the 2022 attack to confirm that the fatwa calling for Rushdie's death remained valid, the New York Times reported, as his federal terrorism trial opened on Wednesday. The trial in federal court in Buffalo will determine whether Hadi Matar acted independently out of religious anger or carried out the attack in response to the fatwa issued by Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and in service of Lebanon's Hezbollah, according to the New York Times.

Hadi Matar, the man who severely injured novelist Salman Rushdie in a 2022 stabbing attack, was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison — the maximum for attempted murder. Matar, 27, was found guilty of second-degree attempted murder in February for his attack on the author at the nonprofit Chautauqua Institution in New York state in August 2022. A knife-wielding Matar leapt onto the stage where Rushdie was about to give a lecture, stabbing the author multiple times in the face, neck, arm, abdomen and eye.

The man charged with stabbing writer Sir Salman Rushdie is facing trial in the US, with jury selection starting on Tuesday. Hadi Matar is charged with attempted murder and assault over the August 2022 incident that left Mr Rushdie blind in one eye. Mr Matar, 27, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial at Chautauqua County Court in New York state, which was delayed twice, will reportedly see Mr Rushdie give evidence and face the accused in court.

The author, who went into hiding for a decade after Iran’s leader called for his death, spoke of his recovery after being stabbed multiple times last August. Salman Rushdie said he feels overwhelmingly grateful and eager to keep writing, saying “you can’t regret your life,” in his first interview since surviving last summer’s brutal stabbing attack. “I’m lucky. What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude,” he told The New Yorker while continuing to recover, both physically and mentally, after being stabbed more than a dozen times during a literary event in western New York.

Why Iran’s football (soccer) team in Qatar refused to sing the national anthem in its first game, which was their subtle gesture amid popular protests. Every country has national symbols that represent its rich culture and history, traditions, and unique attributes of the land and its people. The national anthem is one such symbol that evokes feelings of patriotism among the citizens, binds them with a united purpose and collective identity, and reminds them of what they perceive as their nation's glorious heritage. It is nearly universal that national anthems demand reverence and are viewed by many as a sacred representation of their nation. It is common to see people rise and place a hand on their heart to show their commitment to their land and display their patriotism as they hear their anthem performed. RELATED | Iranian World Cup squad declines to sing national anthem, backing protests at home As Iran’s widespread protests enter their third month, there is an unusual phenome...

NEW YORK (AP) — Salman Rushdie’s agent says the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand as he recovers from an attack from a man who rushed the stage at an August literary event in western New York, according to a published report. Literary agent Andrew Wylie told the Spanish language newspaper El Pais in an article published Saturday that Rushdie suffered three serious wounds to his neck and 15 more wounds to his chest and torso in the attack that took away sight in an eye and left a hand incapacitated. Rushdie, 75, spent years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 edict, a fatwa, calling for his death after publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous.  Over the past two decades, Rushdie has traveled freely. Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, has been incarcerated after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the Aug. 12 attack on Rushdie as he was being introduced at the Chau...

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — The man charged with stabbing Salman Rushdie on a lecture stage in western New York said in an interview that he was surprised to learn the accomplished author had survived the attack. Speaking to the New York Post from jail, Hadi Matar said he decided to see Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution after he saw a tweet last winter about the writer's planned appearance. “I don’t like the person. I don’t think he’s a very good person,” Matar told the newspaper. “He’s someone who attacked Islam. He attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.” Matar, 24, said he considered late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “a great person” but wouldn't say whether he was following a fatwa, or edict, issued by Khomeini in Iran in 1989 that called for Rushdie’s death after the author published “The Satanic Verses.” Iran has denied involvement in the attack. Matar, who lives in Fairview, New Jersey, said he hadn't had any contact with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard....

Salman Rushdie's agent has said "the news is not good" after the author was stabbed at an event in New York state. He was attacked on stage, and is now on a ventilator and unable to speak, Andrew Wylie said in a statement, adding that the author, 75, may lose one eye. Mr Rushdie has suffered years of Islamist death threats after writing The Satanic Verses, published in 1988. Police detained a suspect named as Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, New Jersey. New York State Police said the suspect ran onto the stage and attacked Mr Rushdie and an interviewer at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York state. Mr Rushdie was stabbed at least once in the neck and in the abdomen, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, by helicopter. "Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged," his agent said. No motive or charges have yet been confirmed by police, who are in the process of ob...

STOCKHOLM (AP) — An Iranian citizen was sentenced Thursday to life imprisonment by a Swedish court after being convicted of committing grave war crimes and murder during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The Stockholm District Court said Hamid Noury took part in severe atrocities in July-August 1988 while working as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor at the Gohardasht prison outside the Iranian city of Karaj. A life sentence in Sweden generally means a minimum of 20 to 25 years in prison, but it could be extended. If he is eventually released, Noury will be expelled from Sweden. Noury can appeal the verdict. The court said 61-year-old Noury participated “in the executions of many political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988." The acts were deemed as a serious crime against international law, the court said. A second wave of executions was directed at left-wing sympathizers who were deemed to have renounced their Islamic faith, the court statement said, add...

The Islamic Republic of Iran inaugurated its eighth president on August 5. Ebrahim Raisi, the former Chief Justice and head of the regime's judiciary apparatus, won the presidential election on June 19 in a landslide victory. Many observers both in Iran and internationally were hardly surprised at Raisi’s victory. Leading up to the vote, the regime took all the steps it could to ensure the Chief Justice would win at the polls. Just weeks before the election, Iran’s Guardian Council, a regulatory body controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, swiftly and unilaterally disqualified the vast majority of Raisi’s opposition from the ballot, including many popular reformist candidates who had been gaining public support in the months prior. Raisi was not so much elected as he was installed. His credentials as the quintessential regime insider made him the ideal candidate as far as the Ayatollahs were concerned. Indeed, there is probably no man alive today who has contributed more to th...

HELSINKI (AP) — Swedish public prosecutors said Tuesday they have charged an Iranian citizen with committing grave war crimes during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The Swedish Prosecution Authority said the suspect worked in July-August 1988 as an assistant to the deputy prosecutor in the Gohardasht prison outside the Iranian city of Karaj and allegedly took part in severe atrocities there. During the eight-year Iran-Iraq conflict, Iran was subjected to attacks by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, a political-militant organization, which advocated overthrowing the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran and installing its own government. The Swedish prosecutors said Iran’s then supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued an order for the execution of all prisoners in Iranian prisons who sympathized and remained loyal with the Mujahedin organization. Due to that order, a large number of prisoners were executed in the Gohardasht prison between July 30 and August 16, 1...

The head of Iran’s hardliner Judiciary issued a new directive June 6 advocating a separate treatment for “political crimes” by those who criticize the country’s clerical rulers from “security crimes" by those who question the very essence of the regime. The Islamic Republic has Article 2 of the Political Crimes Act, which includes insulting the heads of three branches of power, as well as offenses related to elections and "spreading false news" counted as "political crime". But, almost all dissidents are usually accused of security crimes, without a public trial by a jury as inscribed in the constitution. In the new directive, the mid-ranking cleric Ebrahim Raeesi (Raisi) has stressed the need to investigate people accused of "insulting" sanctities, the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, and senior Shiite clerics for political crimes as part of “security crimes”. This would still keep the door open for charging dissidents who criticiz...