A Canadian man who plotted ISIS attacks on New York City has pleaded guilty to stabbing two federal prison guards in a 2020 assault that cost one officer his eye.
Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 27, admitted to multiple charges on Tuesday, including assault with intent to commit murder and providing material support to ISIS, according to a Department of Justice press release.
The guilty plea marks another violent chapter for an inmate already serving decades behind bars for terrorism and underscores ongoing security challenges in federal prisons housing extremist inmates, according to prosecutors.
The attack occurred on December 7, 2020, at the United States Penitentiary Allenwood in Pennsylvania, where Bahnasawy fashioned a 14.5-inch-long shank from part of a steel desk in his cell and stabbed one corrections officer in the head and face. When a second officer came to help, he stabbed her hand. The first officer permanently lost his right eye from the attack.
Guards found a note in Bahnasawy’s sock declaring, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.”
A pledge of allegiance to ISIS was taped inside his locker door. The discoveries led to the terrorism-related charge among his guilty pleas.
At the time of the prison attack, Bahnasawy was serving a 40-year sentence for plotting mass-casualty attacks in New York City. He had conspired with two others to bomb and shoot civilians during Ramadan 2016 and to create, in his words, “the next 9/11.”
An undercover FBI agent infiltrated their plot by posing as an ISIS supporter. The FBI arrested Bahnasawy in May 2016 after he traveled from Canada to prepare for the attacks.
He now faces up to 130 years in federal prison for the corrections officer assault. A judge will determine his sentence after reviewing federal guidelines.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
