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.
In another statement read by a prosecutor, a physician who was a victim of the attack described the helplessness of seeing Diamond suffering and knowing that she would not survive.
Boulder Mayor Pro Tem Tara Winer said the victims included some of her close friends.
“It was a horrific attack,” Winer said by email this week. “Their lives were changed forever.”
Soliman’s attorneys revealed he would plead guilty in a Sunday court filing in a related federal case.
Soliman’s federal attorneys have said in court filings the attack “was profoundly inconsistent” with Soliman’s prior conduct and “came as a total shock to his family.”
At the time of the attack, Soliman had been living with his family in a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs — about 97 miles (156 kilometers) away. He had moved to the U.S. from Kuwait in 2022 with his wife and their five children and worked in a series of low-paying jobs.
Investigators allege Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration at Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. He threw two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!”
Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.
Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. Soliman’s federal defense lawyers argue he should not have been charged with hate crimes because he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
State prosecutors have identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen were physically injured. The others were nearby and considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, and Soliman was charged with animal cruelty.
Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until a federal judge in Texas ordered their release in April.
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An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the U.S. and issued a deportation order. But U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring.
Soliman’s attorneys seek to block the family’s deportation until a judge determines they won’t need to be present for court proceedings in his federal case.
