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

Abdulrahman el Bahnasawy is serving a 40-year sentence for his involvement in the terror plot and could face decades more depending on a judge's sentencing.

An Ontario man serving time in the U.S. for plotting a mass-casualty terrorist attack in New York City pleaded guilty this week to stabbing two prison officers in 2020.

Federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday that 27-year-old Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a Kuwait-born Canadian citizen from Ontario, attacked the two officers on Dec. 7, 2020, at United State Penitentiary Allenwood.

According to officials, he used a weapon he made from part of a steel desk in his cell.

“Bahnasawy stabbed one officer in the head and face, and, when a second responded to assist, Bahnasawy stabbed her in the hand,” a release from the U.S. Department of Justice read.

The officer stabbed in the face eventually lost his right eye from the attack, officials said.

When Bahnasawy was restrained, the release says a note was found in his sock that said, “this is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.”

A pledge of allegiance to the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham was also found taped in a locker door in his cell.

Bahnasawy pleaded guilty to multiple counts of assault, assault with intent to commit murder and possession of contraband inside a prison, and for providing material support to ISIS, which is designated as a terrorist organization in both the U.S. and Canada.