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Tuesday, October 20, 2026

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Sentencing · Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Man in a 2016 terror plot gets 50 more years

The File desk · Oct. 20, 2026, 6:44 a.m. ET

Confirmed1 primary sources

Status

Confirmed from the Justice Department's Monday release, re-opened for this edition. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced. The new term is consecutive to the sentence he was already serving.
  • Confirmed
    Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, of Ontario, was sentenced to 50 years for attacking officers at a federal prison, on top of a 40-year sentence.
  • Confirmed
    He pleaded guilty in November 2025. The attack was Dec. 7, 2020, at USP Allenwood.
A man already in federal prison for a 2016 plot in New York was sentenced Monday to 50 more years for stabbing officers. Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, of Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty. The new term runs after the 40-year sentence he is already serving.1
On Dec. 7, 2020, at USP Allenwood, he stabbed one officer in the head and face with a weapon made from a steel desk. “The first officer eventually lost his right eye.” A note in his sock read, “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.”1
He pleaded guilty in November 2025. The U.S. attorney's office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the prison attack. The earlier case was the 2016 New York plot.
Why it matters (Estimate). The sentence is a measure of what happened to the officers, not a new plot in a city. One officer lost an eye. People who work in federal prisons are the ones who absorb that risk when someone already convicted of terrorism attacks the staff.1
The release says he was “sentenced today to 50 years in prison,” consecutive to that 40-year term.
How we know

Notes

  1. 1.Justice Department Office of Public Affairs, Oct. 19, 2026, re-opened for this edition. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/isis-inspired-terrorist-sentenced-attacking-guards-while-serving-sentence-separate-nyc Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 28, of Ontario, Canada, “sentenced today to 50 years in prison,” consecutive to his 40-year sentence for the 2016 New York City plot. Dec. 7, 2020, USP Allenwood. He stabbed one officer “in the head and face.” “The first officer eventually lost his right eye.” “This is a terrorist attack for the Islamic State.” Pleaded guilty November 2025. Middle District of Pennsylvania.

What is still unknown or disputed

  • The release doesn't say when he will be eligible for release.
  • It doesn't name the officers.

Primary sources

Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.

  1. Source 1

    ISIS-inspired terrorist sentenced for attacking guards

    U.S. Department of Justice · October 19, 2026

    Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy was sentenced today to 50 years in prison, consecutive to a 40-year sentence, for attacking corrections officers at USP Allenwood.

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/isis-inspired-terrorist-sentenced-attacking-guards-while-serving-sentence-separate-nyc

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