A U.S. federal judge sentenced Canadian Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy to 50 years for stabbing two correctional officers, adding a consecutive term to his existing 40-year sentence for a New York terror plot.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the sentence Oct. 19. The assault occurred Dec. 7, 2020, at U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood in Pennsylvania, where El Bahnasawy was already serving his earlier term. The new 50 years will begin after the 40-year term ends.
El Bahnasawy used a weapon assembled from part of a steel desk, the department said. One officer suffered stab wounds to the head and face and later lost his right eye. Another officer was stabbed in the hand while stepping in to help.
He pleaded guilty Nov. 4, 2025, to assault with intent to commit murder, possession of prison contraband and providing the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) with material support, the department said. The department also reported finding a note in his sock describing the assault as a terrorist attack for ISIS. Its announcement did not identify the note’s author.
His earlier 40-year sentence followed a separate plot targeting crowded parts of New York City. In its 2018 sentencing account, the department described plans for bombings in Times Square and on the subway, along with shootings at concert venues. The attacks did not take place. An undercover FBI agent had entered the plot before El Bahnasawy was arrested in May 2016, after traveling from Canada to the New York area, according to that account. The court imposed the original term Dec. 19, 2018.
A federal court calendar listed the Oct. 19 sentencing before Judge Matthew W. Brann in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. U.S. Attorney Brian D. Miller said the sentence reflected a commitment to counter violence carried out in ISIS’ name, including “even behind prison walls.”
