DENVER (AP) — A federal judge declared on Wednesday that prosecutors are permitted to advance with a hate crime charge against a man accused of using Molotov cocktails on a group assembled in Boulder, Colorado, advocating for Israeli hostages.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, aged 45, appeared in federal court in Denver for a preliminary hearing connected to the June 1 attack in Boulder, which resulted in injuries to at least eight individuals.
Investigators say he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”
Soliman’s defense lawyer, David Kraut, encouraged Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella to halt the progression of the case. Kraut argued that Soliman’s anti-Zionist remarks and his online search for a “Zionist” event to target indicated he attacked the demonstrators because of their perceived political opinions — specifically their assumed support for Israel and the Zionist political movement. Attacks driven by political opinions are not classified as hate crimes under federal law.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Hindman said the government alleged that the attack was a hate crime because Soliman targeted people based on their national origin — their perceived connection to Israel. Prosecutors are not alleging that Soliman targeted demonstrators, who carried Israeli and American flags, because he believed they were Jewish, noting that he has said that not all Jewish people are Zionists.
Hindman said Soliman did not use the term Israel. But she pointed out that he doesn’t support its existence on what he called “our land,” which he defined as Palestine.
“He is targeting Israel, and he is targeting anyone who supports the existence of Israel on that land,” she said.
Starnella acknowledged that some of the evidence undercut the government’s allegation that the demonstrators were targeted because of their perceived national origin but said other evidence supported it. At this stage, the government gets the benefit of the doubt on questions about evidence, she said.
Investigators say Soliman told them he had intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine.” Soliman told investigators he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a “legal citizen.”
Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been living in the U.S. illegally with his family.
During his Wednesday appearance, Soliman’s lower right arm and hand were wrapped in a thick bandage, with handcuffs around his wrists. Police previously said he was taken to a hospital for unspecified injuries right after the attack. FBI agent Timothy Chan testified at Wednesday’s hearing that Soliman burned himself as he threw the second Molotov cocktail.
Soliman wrote “1187” with a marker on the shirt he was wearing during the attack, a reference to the year that Muslims liberated Jerusalem from Christian Crusaders, Chan said. The significance of that year and battle were also discussed in documents found in Soliman’s car, he testified.
Soliman did not carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an arrest affidavit.
One of the injured suffered burns over 60% of their body, Chan testified. An unspecified number of those injured remain in the hospital, he said.
Authorities consider 15 people and a dog as victims of the attack at the downtown Pearl Street pedestrian mall. One is a Holocaust survivor. Some are considered victims because they could have been hurt.
Soliman is charged separately in state court with multiple counts of attempted murder, assault and offenses related to more than a dozen additional Molotov cocktails police say he did not use.
Run for Their Lives, the group targeted in the attack, started in October 2023 after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.
Suspect’s family asks for help
Federal authorities are seeking to deport Soliman’s wife and their five children. They range in age from 4 to 18 years old and are being held in an immigration detention center in Texas, according to court documents.
The White House said in a June 3 social media post that one-way tickets had been purchased for the family members, adding: “Final boarding call coming soon.”
A Colorado federal judge temporarily blocked their deportation with a restraining order on June 4. The case has since been transferred to Texas, where a federal judge on Wednesday extended the restraining order another two weeks.
Lawyers for the family had asked to keep the order in place, even though government lawyers said in court documents that the family would be deported under the normal process, not an expedited one because the lawyers did not address the earlier comments from the White House.
In a statement Wednesday, Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, said she and her children sent their love to the many families suffering as a result of the attack but also urged the American people to consider their plight now. She focused on the trouble her children were having.
“All they want is to be home, to be in school, to have privacy, to sleep in their own beds, to have their mother make them a home-cooked meal, to help them grieve and get through these terrible weeks,” she wrote.
