U.S. Penalizes Iranian Group Behind Salman Rushdie Bounty

The Biden administration on Friday levied sanctions against an Iranian foundation that has sponsored a bounty on the writer Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed in August on a stage in New York.

Mr. Rushdie, who spent years under police protection after Iranian leaders called for his execution over his 1988 book “The Satanic Verses,” was stabbed several times before a planned lecture in New York’s Chautauqua Institution on Aug. 12. Federal authorities are investigating what motivated the suspected attacker, Hadi Matar, a New Jersey man of Lebanese descent. Mr. Matar’s lawyer in New York, Nathaniel Barone, entered a plea of not guilty last month.

U.S. 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 Mr. 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.