An Egyptian man who firebombed a Jewish group at a demonstration in Boulder last year has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and other charges.
Mohamed Soliman is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges last spring in connection with the deadly June 2025 attack on elderly activists. He yelled “Free Palestine!” and threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating in support of hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Soliman used a “makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device” into the crowd, the FBI said.
Federal prosecutors accused Soliman of attacking the group because they were Jewish. The flames badly burned Karen Diamond, 82, and injured a dozen others. Diamond died three weeks later and her family said she suffered “indescribable pain.”
The charges Soliman pleaded guilty to in federal court in Denver included nine counts of hate crimes, two of using fire or an explosive to commit a felony and one of carrying an explosive while committing a felony. They are punishable by life in prison after federal prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty.
Plea hearing
Soliman spoke through an interpreter at his plea hearing Thursday and said little besides “yes” and “no” to the judge’s questions. He was led out of court in handcuffs and shackles without looking at the victims in the courtroom.
“The defendant violently used the explosives to cause permanent and life-threatening injuries to several of these victims and cause the death of Karen Diamond,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Hindman said in court shortly before Soliman pleaded guilty.
A group of victims sat stoically in the courtroom and some took notes as the judge asked Soliman if he understood the proceedings. Several victims intend to make statements at Soliman’s sentencing but declined to do so in court Thursday, the judge said.
“I have not made up my mind about the sentence,” Colorado U.S. District Judge John Kane said. Soliman's federal sentencing was set for Jan. 7.
Boulder shaken by the attack
Boulder residents, particularly the Jewish community, were unnerved by the attack in the city northwest of Denver that’s home to the University of Colorado. The group “Run for Their Lives” had been demonstrating weekly downtown.
Soliman was able to get near the demonstration on Pearl Street, a pedestrian mall lined with shops and restaurants, by posing as a gardener.
He planned the attack for a year and after his arrest, he told police he wanted “to kill all Zionist people,” a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel.
Federal officials said he was in the U.S. illegally. He entered in 2022 on a tourist visa that expired the following year, then filed for asylum. He was granted work authorization, but it too expired.
Soliman was living with his wife and their five children in an apartment in Colorado Springs at the time of the attack and worked a series of low-paying jobs. The couple divorced in April and Soliman recently dropped his opposition to removing his family from the U.S.
Prosecutors in Soliman’s state case argued he planned to inflict more harm than he carried out and tried twice to buy a gun but was denied. He brought 18 Molotov cocktails — bottles filled with flammable liquid that are lit, thrown and burst into flames when they shatter — to the demonstration in a box, but only two were thrown.
Of the 29 attack victims identified by state prosecutors, 13 were physically injured. Prosecutors considered the rest victims because they could have been hurt and an injured dog led to a state animal cruelty charge.
While in court to plead guilty to the state charges in May, Soliman said he has known and respected Jewish people but questioned the deaths of innocent people in Israeli attacks on Gaza.
“Yes, I am against Israel and I can’t deny that. And that is my right,” Soliman said.
