Ontario man convicted in U.S. attack plot pleads guilty to stabbing prison officers

A 27-year-old man from Ontario has pleaded guilty to stabbing two correctional officers at a U.S. prison in 2020 while serving a sentence for plotting a terrorist attack in New York City. 

The U.S. Department of Justice says Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy was an inmate at the United States Penitentiary Allenwood in Pennsylvania when he attacked two corrections officers using a weapon made from a part of a steel desk in his cell on Dec. 7, 2020.

It says he stabbed one officer in the head and face and when a second officer responded to assist, he stabbed her in the hand.

Officials say the first officer eventually lost his right eye as a result of the attack. 

They say a note was found in El Bahnasawy’s sock that read, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State,” and a pledge of allegiance to the group known as ISIS was also found taped to the inside of a locker door in his prison cell.  

The justice department says Bahnasawy has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of assault, assault with intent to commit murder and possession of contraband inside a prison, as well as providing material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.   

At the time of the prison stabbings, he was serving a sentence for his role in plotting a mass casualty terrorist attack in New York City on behalf of ISIS.

U.S. officials say he plotted with two other people to conduct bombings and shootings in heavily populated areas of the city in 2016.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2025.