EXCLUSIVE: Did Hezbollah Radicalize Salman Rushdie’s Attacker?

Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today

Last month, The Free Press and the Center for Peace Communications sent a team of journalists to south Lebanon. They were there to retrace the steps of Hadi Matar, the 27-year-old Lebanese American man sentenced last week to 25 years in prison for assaulting and attempting to murder Salman Rushdie.

With Matar found guilty and behind bars, you might think most of the big questions about this case have been answered. But the story of Matar, and the issue of what motivated him to stab the British-American novelist and Booker Prize winner 15 times onstage at a literary festival in western New York in August 2022, is not over.

He faces a second trial on federal charges that he provided material support to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. If found guilty, he could spend life in prison. The question of what motivated Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, has broader ramifications. Was this attempted assassination the work of a lone wolf or was he coordinating with a foreign terror group?

That was the question at the heart of a joint investigation by The Free Press and the Center for Peace Communications. Our team retraced the 27-year-old’s travels to south Lebanon and his family home in the town of Yaroun, a Hezbollah stronghold on the border with Israel.