Canadian ISIS plotter gets 50 more years in prison for US prison stabbing

ALLENWOOD — Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a 28-year-old man from Mississauga, Ont., has been sentenced to an additional 50 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday. The sentence follows a December 7, 2020, knife attack at U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood in Pennsylvania, according to the department.

According to the DOJ, El Bahnasawy made a weapon from part of a steel desk in his cell and stabbed one officer in the head and face. A second officer who tried to intervene was stabbed in the hand. The first officer lost an eye, the department said. Officers said they found a note in his sock reading "This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State," the DOJ said.

"El Bahnasawy ... savagely attacked corrections officers once again on behalf of ISIS," John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement. "Today's sentence will further ensure that El Bahnasawy remains in prison, where he can do much less harm, for a very long time."

The new sentence runs consecutively to his existing term, according to the DOJ. He pleaded guilty in 2025 to multiple counts of assault, possession of contraband in a prison cell and providing material support to ISIS. The sources do not say whether he has entered a plea to any further charge over the 2020 attack.

Background

El Bahnasawy pleaded guilty in 2016 to plotting a series of attacks in New York City in support of ISIS. He was arrested by the FBI in May 2016, with help from the RCMP, after travelling from Canada to New York, according to the DOJ. Prosecutors said he planned to place bombs in Times Square and the New York subway, and to shoot civilians at concert venues. He was sentenced in 2018.

An FBI agent working undercover had infiltrated the group, posing as an ISIS supporter. In 2019, El Bahnasawy's lawyer appealed his conviction, arguing that the trial judge had violated his rights and that the sentence was unreasonably harsh. The lawyer cited his mental health. The defence also argued that the FBI agent had encouraged the plot. Prosecutors said the plot was well underway before the two connected.

Two co-conspirators were arrested abroad in 2016 and 2017, according to the DOJ. Talha Haroon was arrested in Pakistan and Russell Salic in the Philippines.