ISIS terrorist from Ontario gets additional 50 years in U.S. prison for stabbing guard in the eye

Ontario man Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after stabbing two prison guards at U.S. Penitentiary Allenwood in Pennsylvania, an attack that led to one of them losing his eye.

The sentence for El Bahnasawy will run consecutively with the 40-year sentence he is already serving for his part in plotting a mass-casualty terrorist attack in New York City on behalf of ISIS.

The attack in Allenwood occurred on Dec. 7, 2020, when El Bahnasawy went at the two guards using a weapon made from part of a steel desk in his cell. He stabbed one officer in the head and face. Then, when a second officer responded, El Bahnasawy stabbed her in the hand. The first officer eventually lost his right eye because of Bahnasawy’s attack.

El Bahnasawy’s attack on the guards was “once again on behalf of ISIS,” said John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security, in a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday. “Today’s sentence will further ensure that Bahnasawy remains in prison, where he can do much less harm, for a very long time.”

Pennsylvania U.S. attorney Brian Miller said the justice department “will prosecute those who aid, attempt to aid, or commit violence on behalf of the pernicious ISIS ideology wherever they may be found,” adding that the sentence reflects an “unwavering commitment to fight those who perpetrate violence in the name of ISIS even behind prison walls.”

When El Bahnasawy was finally restrained, corrections officers found a note in his sock that read, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.” A pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq was also found taped inside the locker door in El Bahnasawy’s prison cell.

He pleaded guilty in November 2025 to assault, assault with intent to commit murder, possession of contraband inside a prison, as well as providing material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

As previously reported by National Post, El Bahnasawy led a sheltered existence in Mississauga, Ont. before getting involved with ISIS. He suffered from “serious” mental-health problems. As a teenager, his world revolved around his parents, his older sister and the people he met while being treated for an opioid addiction. He never got past Grade 11. He went on with two men to plot bombings and shootings in the name of ISIS amid heavily populated areas of New York City during Ramadan in 2016.

El Bahnasawy pleaded guilty Oct. 13, 2016 to conspiring to bomb Times Square, attack passengers on the subway and shoot up crowds at unnamed concerts.

Initially he was represented by federal public defenders after his arrest, but as reported by National Post, he later hired a new legal team linked to Dennis Edney, the celebrated Alberta lawyer who acted for Omar Khadr, citing entreaties from his parents.

The terrorist plot was infiltrated by an undercover FBI agent, posing as an ISIS supporter. Subsequently, the FBI arrested El Bahnasawy in May 2016 after he had travelled from Canada to the New York City area intending to carry out the planned attacks.

He has been in custody ever since.

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