Boulder firebomber pleads guilty to federal hate crimes
Mohamed Soliman admits attacking Jewish marchers with Molotov cocktails, visa overstayer had planned attack for a year
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Man pleads guilty to federal hate crimes in deadly firebomb attack on Colorado demonstrators – WTOP News
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Attacker who firebombed a Jewish gathering in Colorado pleads guilty in federal court
independent.co.uk
Mohamed Soliman pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges in a Denver courtroom on Thursday, admitting the firebombing of a Jewish demonstration in Boulder, Colorado, that killed 82-year-old Karen Diamond and injured a dozen others. The Egyptian man is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to state charges last spring.
The attack came in June 2025, when Soliman threw two lit Molotov cocktails at participants in a weekly march held in support of hostages taken in the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7, 2023. He yelled "Free Palestine" as the bottles shattered. Federal prosecutors charged that he targeted the group because the demonstrators were Jewish. The federal plea covered nine counts of hate crimes, two counts of using fire or an explosive to commit a felony, and one count of carrying an explosive during a felony — all punishable by life in prison. Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty.
The plea closes the federal case but leaves the backdrop untouched. Soliman entered the United States in 2022 on a tourist visa that expired the following year. He then filed for asylum and was granted work authorization, which also lapsed. Federal officials confirmed he was in the country illegally at the time of the attack, living with his wife and five children in Colorado Springs and working a series of low-paying jobs. He and his wife divorced in April, and he has since dropped his opposition to his family's removal from the country.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police after his arrest that he wanted "to kill all Zionist people." State prosecutors said he had planned the attack for a year, tried twice to buy a gun and was denied both times, and brought 18 Molotov cocktails to the pedestrian mall on Pearl Street — posing as a gardener to get close. He threw two. Of the 29 victims state prosecutors identified, 13 were physically injured.
Karen Diamond died three weeks after the attack, having suffered what her family described as indescribable pain.