US sanctions Iranian foundation over Rushdie attack
The United States designated the 15 Khordad Foundation for financially backing the call for Salman Rushdie’s death.
The US Treasury Department on Friday sanctioned an Iran-based foundation that maintains a multimillion-dollar bounty on Salman Rushdie, the British-American author attacked on stage in New York in August.
In 1989, then-Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death over his portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad in his acclaimed novel “The Satanic Verses.” The 15 Khordad Foundation, which is affiliated with the supreme leader, has since “committed millions of dollars to anyone willing to carry out this heinous act,” Treasury said in a news release.
The department said the "so-called charitable foundation" increased its bounty on Rushdie from $2.7 million to $3.3 million in 2012 and has “publicly advertised their offer, claiming the entire sum would be given immediately to anyone who assassinated Rushdie.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the incitement and recent attack on Rushdie as “a blatant assault on freedom of speech and an act of terrorism.”
