An Egyptian illegal immigrant who killed an elderly woman and injured a dozen other people in an antisemitic firebombing in Colorado last June was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty Thursday — but he could still face the death penalty.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 46, who admitted to state charges for the fiery ambush, has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges stemming from the attack against a demonstration in support of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Federal prosecutors say they could still seek the death penalty in their case against him.
Soliman, who was in the country illegally on an expired tourist visa, lobbed two Molotov cocktails at the group, who had gathered at a popular pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, and later told investigators he was motivated by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”
Karen Diamond, 82, was injured in the attack and later died. A dozen others were also injured.
Speaking to the court through an interpreter for nearly a half hour, Soliman offered apologies to the victims and condolences for Diamond’s death. “There are no words that can express my sadness for her passing,” Soliman said.
He said he wasn’t asking for leniency at sentencing for his convictions in state court and wants prosecutors pressing federal hate crime charges against him to seek the death penalty.
“If I went back, I would not have done this as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,” Soliman said. “What I did came out of myself and only myself.”
In a statement read earlier in court by a prosecutor, Diamond’s sons asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again “since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again.”
Andrew and Ethan Diamond said their mother suffered “indescribable pain” for over three weeks before her death.
“In those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions ‘living hell’ and ‘fate worse than death,’” Diamond’s sons said in the statement. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Lisa Turnquist via AP |
Mohamed Soliman, 46, pleads guilty to 184 felony counts in state court but not guilty to federal hate crime charges, with his lawyers arguing ‘Zionists’ not protected class
A US man accused of lobbing gasoline bombs at a rally for Israeli hostages last year in Boulder, Colorado — an incident that killed an 82-year-old woman and wounded more than a dozen other people — was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday after pleading guilty to all state-level charges against him.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 46, entered the pleas on Thursday to dozens of felony counts, including first-degree murder under two definitions of the offense, each carrying a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The defendant, speaking through an Arabic interpreter as he answered “guilty” to each charge recited by the Boulder County District Court judge, was formally sentenced following a brief recess. He looked down at a desk throughout the sentencing.
Soliman had been charged with a total of 184 counts stemming from the June 1, 2025, attack, including multiple charges of murder, attempted murder, assault and criminal use of explosives and incendiary devices.
But he has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges, with his lawyers arguing that the attack targeted “Zionists,” rather than Israelis or Jews.
According to both prosecution and defense accounts in court records, Soliman tossed two Molotov cocktails at the demonstrators, who were calling for the return of people abducted from Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.
According to prosecutors, Soliman also used a makeshift blowtorch fashioned from a commercial weed sprayer during his attack, in which he yelled “Free Palestine!” as the gasoline bombs he lobbed at the crowd burst into flames.
Authorities identified a total of 29 victims, including some who were burned or injured while fleeing or who were close enough to be considered targets of attempted murder. One victim, 82-year-old Karen Diamond, succumbed to her wounds later that month. --->READ MORE HERE
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