US considers sanctions on Iran-linked entities after Salman Rushdie attack

The Biden administration is considering sanctions targeting entities linked to Iran for encouraging attacks on Salman Rushdie, people familiar with the matter say, after the acclaimed novelist was stabbed last month at a New York event, Report informs referring to The Wall Street Journal.

The sanctions under consideration include restricting the access of these entities to the global financial system, according to these people. Some of them have offered rewards to kill Rushdie, which the US believes motivates such attacks, these people said.

Rushdie, who spent years under police protection after Iranian leaders called for his execution over the 1988 book “The Satanic Verses,” was stabbed multiple times before a planned lecture in New York’s Chautauqua Institution on August 12. Federal authorities are investigating what motivated the suspected attacker, Hadi Matar, a New Jersey man of Lebanese descent.

Matar’s lawyer in New York, Nathaniel Barone, entered a plea of not guilty last month.

US officials say elements of the Iranian regime are liable because of their support for the fatwa, or Islamic edict, issued by the country’s then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 demanding Rushdie’s death over “The Satanic Verses.” The novel, which fictionalized elements of the Prophet Muhammad’s life, caused uproar among some Muslims, who called it blasphemous.

No decision has been made on the sanctions yet.

The 15th Khordad Foundation in Iran is a charitable organization operating under the supervision of the Office of the Supreme Leader. It 'put a bounty' of about $2.5 million on Rushdie’s head in 1997, raising it to $2.8 million in late 1998 and then again to $3.3 million in 2012. The organization has been silent since the author was attacked this summer. It didn’t return a request for comment.