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.
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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.
Under U.S. federal law, Bahnasawy could face a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison, a term of supervised release after his imprisonment, and a fine for stabbing the two officers.
Officials say Bahnasawy was serving his prison term for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks with two other people in New York City during the summer of 2016 in support of the so-called Islamic State. The plot would have involved conducting bombings and shootings in heavily-populated areas during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
An undercover FBI agent had infiltrated the terrorist plot, posing as an Islamic State supporter who would join in the attacks.
Bahnasawy was arrested in May 2016 after he traveled from Canada to the New York City area in preparation for the attack.
According to his 2018 sentencing, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, and a lifetime of supervised release.
He pleaded guilty on Oct. 13, 2016, and was sentenced Dec. 19, 2018.
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