Canadian inmate admits to terrorist stabbing attack on U.S. prison guards

A 27-year-old Canadian citizen, originally born in Kuwait and already serving a 40-year terrorism sentence in the United States, has pleaded guilty to attacking two correctional officers.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

A 27-year-old Canadian citizen, originally born in Kuwait and already serving a 40-year terrorism sentence in the United States, has pleaded guilty to attacking two correctional officers at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania while pledging allegiance to the Islamic State.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said on Wednesday that Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including assault with intent to commit murder, possession of contraband in prison, and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Prosecutors said the incident occurred on December 7, 2020, while El Bahnasawy was an inmate at the United States Penitentiary in Allenwood.

According to court filings, El Bahnasawy fashioned a makeshift weapon from part of a steel desk inside his cell and attacked two correctional officers during morning rounds. He stabbed one officer repeatedly in the head and face. When another officer intervened, El Bahnasawy stabbed her in the hand before being subdued and restrained.

Authorities said the first officer later lost his right eye due to injuries from the attack.

When prison staff searched El Bahnasawy, they found a handwritten note in his sock stating, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.” Investigators also found a printed pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham taped inside a locker in his cell.

U.S. Attorney Brian D. Miller said El Bahnasawy’s actions were “a violent continuation of his earlier support for ISIS and an example of radical extremism persisting even in federal custody.”

At the time of the prison attack, El Bahnasawy was already serving a lengthy sentence stemming from a foiled 2016 plot to carry out mass-casualty terrorist attacks in New York City during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

He was arrested in May 2016 at age 20 after crossing from Canada into the United States to prepare for the planned attacks. Authorities said he had conspired with two others—Talha Haroon, an American citizen, and Russell Salic, a doctor from the Philippines—to carry out bombings and shootings in heavily populated public spaces in Manhattan, including Times Square, subway stations, and concert venues.

El Bahnasawy, who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, had sent encrypted communications to what he believed were fellow ISIS supporters detailing plans for coordinated suicide bombings and mass shootings.

Unbeknownst to him, one of his contacts was an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS recruit.

The FBI arrested El Bahnasawy in May 2016 shortly after he arrived in the New York City area. He later pleaded guilty in 2017 to terrorism-related charges and was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said the 2020 Allenwood assault demonstrated the ongoing risks posed by inmates radicalized by extremist ideologies.

“El Bahnasawy not only attempted to murder correctional officers in cold blood but did so as an act of terror, explicitly in the name of ISIS,” Eisenberg said.

El Bahnasawy faces a maximum potential sentence of 130 years in prison, along with supervised release and fines. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

El Bahnasawy’s earlier case drew international attention both for the seriousness of the planned attacks and for his background. Court filings in his New York trial described him as a Canadian citizen who had been treated for mental health issues prior to his radicalization online.

Medical records from Kuwait, Canada, Egypt and the U.S., obtained by Global News, show a traumatic 1997 birth with possible oxygen deprivation, speech delay until age four, bipolar disorder, obsessive fixations and polysubstance abuse starting at 14.

Prior to his terrorism conviction and subsequent imprisonment, El Bahnasawy “huffed” air fresheners and bug spray, heard hallucinatory voices, attempted suicide and cycled through heroin, LSD, crack and ecstasy.

His family had pleaded for leniency, citing his youth and mental health history. However, U.S. prosecutors argued that his actions—including acquiring bomb-making materials, coordinating attacks, and declaring allegiance to ISIS—demonstrated premeditation and intent to kill on a massive scale.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who presided over his New York case, said at the time of sentencing that the evidence showed El Bahnasawy “had a full understanding of the scale of what he was planning and the devastation it could cause.”

Following the 2016 conviction, El Bahnasawy was transferred to a high-security federal penitentiary to serve his term. Officials have not said whether he will remain at Allenwood following the latest guilty plea.

Under U.S. federal law, a guilty plea for assaulting correctional officers and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a statutory maximum penalty of 130 years. Sentences are imposed by a federal judge after considering statutory factors, the nature of the offenses, and the defendant’s criminal history.