ISIS Supporter Sentenced to 50 Years for Attacking Federal Prison Officers

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, of Ontario, Canada, was sentenced Oct. 19 to 50 years in prison for attacking two correctional officers at U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood in Pennsylvania. The sentence will run consecutively to the 40-year term he is already serving for plotting ISIS-inspired mass-casualty attacks in New York City. On Dec. 7, 2020, Bahnasawy used […]

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, of Ontario, Canada, was sentenced Oct. 19 to 50 years in prison for attacking two correctional officers at U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood in Pennsylvania. The sentence will run consecutively to the 40-year term he is already serving for plotting ISIS-inspired mass-casualty attacks in New York City.
On Dec. 7, 2020, Bahnasawy used a weapon fashioned from a steel desk to stab one officer in the head and face and another in the hand. The first officer eventually lost his right eye. Investigators found a note in Bahnasawy’s sock identifying the assault as an ISIS terrorist attack and an ISIS allegiance pledge taped inside his prison locker.
Bahnasawy pleaded guilty in November 2025 to assault offenses, assault with intent to commit murder, possessing prison contraband and providing material support to ISIS. His earlier conviction stemmed from a 2016 plot with two accomplices to conduct bombings and shootings in crowded New York City locations during Ramadan. An undercover FBI agent infiltrated that plot, leading to Bahnasawy’s arrest in May 2016.