A Canadian national already serving a sentence for plotting a terrorist attack in New York City has pleaded guilty to multiple offenses stemming from a violent 2020 assault on two correctional officers at a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 27, of Ontario, Canada, admitted to attacking two officers at the United States Penitentiary (USP) Allenwood using a weapon fashioned from part of a steel desk inside his cell. One officer suffered severe injuries, including the loss of an eye, while a second was stabbed in the hand during the assault.
When officers restrained Bahnasawy, investigators discovered a note in his sock declaring the attack as being carried out “for the Islamic State,” along with a pledge of allegiance to ISIS taped inside his cell locker. Bahnasawy pleaded guilty to assault, assault with intent to commit murder, possession of contraband, and providing material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
At the time of the attack, Bahnasawy was serving a prison sentence for his role in a 2016 ISIS-directed plot to conduct bombings and shootings across New York City during Ramadan. That conspiracy, thwarted by the FBI, involved co-conspirators Talha Haroon and Russell Salic and targeted heavily populated areas in the city.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey MacArthur and Counterterrorism Section Trial Attorney Jessica L. Joyce.
Under federal law, Bahnasawy faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison, in addition to supervised release and fines, pending sentencing by a federal judge.
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