A man found guilty of stabbing award-winning British author Salman Rushdie in 2022 received a 25-year prison sentence, the harshest penalty possible.

Hadi Matar, 27, was found guilty in February of attempted murder and assault in connection to the knife attack that left Rushdie blind in one eye. 

Rushdie, who is 77, was attacked on stage at the Chautauqua Institution just before a lecture and was flown to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania, where he stayed for nearly three weeks.

The author of the 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses,” which sparked global protests and led to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei issuing a death threat against him, sustained injuries to his liver, arm, and eye.

Matar was also sentenced to seven years, to be served concurrently, for the stabbing of another man who was on stage with Rushdie, according to The Associated Press.

“My first thought when I saw this murderous shape rushing towards me was: So, it’s you. Here you are,” Rushdie said. “It felt like something coming out of the distant past and trying to drag me back in time … back into that distant past in order to kill me.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.