US imposes sanctions on organization that issued bounty on Salman Rushdie

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday revealed brand-new sanctions on the “15 Khordad Structure” over the attack of author Salman Rushdie, due to the group putting a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head prior to the August stabbing.

” In reaction to the attack on author Salman Rushdie, the United States is designating the Iranian entity ’15 Khordad Structure.’ Prior to the attack, this entity had actually provided and consequently increased a bounty on Rushdie’s life in assistance of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s order requiring Rushdie’s death. We are designating it today for supplying financial backing for an act of terrorism,” Blinken stated.

After the release of Rushdie’s unique “The Hellish Verses,” then-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini provided a fatwa requiring the author’s death and the “15 Khordad Structure provided a bounty on Rushdie in assistance of Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa, and later on, in 2012, increased the bounty,” Blinken stated.

Blinken likewise keeps in mind that the fatwa was “declared” in 2017 by Iran’s existing Supreme Leader, and after that, in 2022, was republished by Iranian state-controlled media.

” The notorious fatwa was meant to prompt terrorism and violence, cause the death of Rushdie and his partners, and frighten others. The United States condemns such incitement and the attack on Rushdie in the greatest terms as an outright attack on liberty of speech and an act of terrorism. Today’s action is another clear signal that we will not wait in the face of it,” Blinken stated.

Rushdie lost his sight in one eye and among his hands was “immobilized” following the stabbing attack in August, according to an interview provided by his representative to a Spanish paper.

Rushdie, 75, went through emergency situation surgical treatment after he was stabbed numerous times prior to his scheduled lecture at the Chautauqua Organization in New York City on August 12.

Team member and visitors then hurried onto the phase and held down the suspect, recognized as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, prior to a state cannon fodder appointed to the occasion took him into custody, according to New york city State Cops.

Matar has actually pleaded innocent to tried murder in the 2nd degree, and second-degree attack, over the attack.