The Troubled Path of El Bahnasawy: New Charges Add to a Dark Legacy

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, a name already etched into a certain kind of grim infamy, continues to make headlines. The Ontario man, you see, has been serving a lengthy 40-year sentence for his role in a chilling ISIS-inspired plot to unleash terror on New York City. A plot, we should probably remember, that was thankfully thwarted back in 2016. But the story, it turns out, wasn't quite finished.

Just last week, El Bahnasawy pleaded guilty once more, this time to a different, though no less disturbing, set of charges: assaulting U.S. corrections officers. And honestly, it makes you wonder about the man's ongoing trajectory, doesn't it?

The incident itself occurred in October 2021, within the stark walls of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. According to reports, El Bahnasawy engaged in what authorities described as an unprovoked attack. He punched one officer directly in the face, causing injuries. And when another officer bravely intervened, they too sustained injuries. It was, in truth, a chaotic scene, one where he also apparently sought to incite other inmates to violence against staff. A troubling detail, that.

Now, as a result of this latest outburst, he's been handed an additional 15 months. And here’s the kicker: that new sentence will only begin once his existing 40-year term is complete. So, in essence, he’s adding to an already substantial stay behind bars.

His journey to this point has been, you could say, a complicated one. Originally from Mississauga, Ontario, El Bahnasawy was, at the tender age of 19, a key player in the elaborate scheme to target iconic New York City locations, including Times Square, the city's subway system, and various concert venues. His co-conspirators, by the way, included a man in Pakistan and another in the Philippines. It was a truly international plot, one that federal prosecutors called “a recipe for mass murder.”

During his initial sentencing, his defense team, perhaps understandably, brought up issues of his mental health, arguing for leniency. Yet, the gravity of the planned attacks ultimately led to that four-decade sentence. And now, this. One can only surmise that the path of conflict, for Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, continues to stretch out before him, even within the confines of a maximum-security prison.