Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy of Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a 2020 assault on correctional officers at the U.S. Penitentiary in Allenwood, Pa., according to a press release issued on Nov. 4 from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bahnasawy was serving time for conspiring to “use a weapon of mass destruction against persons and property within the United States,” according to his 2016 indictment. Undercover FBI agents foiled his planned attack that year during Ramadan in New York City, which started in June and ended in early July.
On Dec. 7, 2020, he attacked two officers using a weapon fashioned from a steel desk. He “stabbed one officer in the head and face,” and when a second officer intervened, he “stabbed her in the hand.”
The first officer “eventually lost his right eye as a result of the attack.”
A note was found in his sock that read, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.” And a “pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)” was found taped to the inside of his prison cell locker.
Bahnasawy pleaded guilty to assault, assault with intent to commit murder, possession of contraband in prison and providing material support to ISIS. He faces a maximum penalty of 130 years in prison.
