MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt is ready to present his state case against Hadi Matar, the man accused of attacking famous author Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in 2022.

Matar, 26, faces state charges of attempted murder and assault. 

"It's a pretty horrific act, but then again, it's fairly straight forward from a trial standpoint," said Schmidt. "It was a witnessed event. It was a video recorded event."

What You Need To Know

  • The trial of Hadi Matar has been put on hold

  • In addition to his state charges, Matar also faces a federal terrorism-related charge

  • If convicted on the federal count, Matar faces life in prison

The charges are on a different track than Matar's federal terrorism-related offenses, including attempting to provide material support to foreign terrorist organization Hezbollah, and that he attempted to carry out Iran's ordered plan to kill Rushdie.

"Obviously there is some relationship there," said Schmidt. "Mr. Matar's intent, his conduct and the fact that he took a substantial step in carrying out his plan to kill Mr. Rushdie, those are the theories that we're focused on when we have to prove our elements of the crimes in state court."

And prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt. 

"That's the $64,000 question," said Ned Barone, Chautauqua County public chief defender. "They can always jump to conclusions or assume certain things, and I think that in these situations, even though it's been witnessed by so many people, it still begs the question of what my client's intent was."

Though the charges are different, Barone will also defend Matar in federal court, where he says those charges are more difficult to prove.

"Especially since those are more conspiracy-based charges; a conspiracy on the part of my client in doing certain things to assist others to or materialistically harm the United States or other individuals within the United States," said Barone.

Barone says his strategy will be different on the federal stage, as well.

"The way we defend those is much more different than something like he's, Mr. Matar's, been charged with locally," said Barone.

There is no word on when the federal trial will get started, most likely after the state proceeding as we still await word on when and where that trial will be, after the defense asked the appellate court in Rochester to grant a change of venue.