Man accused of Colorado demonstration attack to change plea to federal hate crime charges

DENVER (AP) — An Egyptian man is scheduled to change his not guilty plea to federal hate crime and other charges Thursday for a deadly firebombing attack on demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, last year.

Mohamed Soliman is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges last spring.

Yelling “Free Palestine,” Soliman lit and threw two Molotov cocktails at the demonstrators who were marching in support of hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

Federal prosecutors accused Soliman of attacking in June 2025 because the demonstrators were Jewish. The flames badly burned Karen Diamond, 82, and injured a dozen others.

Diamond died three weeks later. Her family says she suffered “indescribable pain.”

The charges Soliman previously pleaded not guilty to in federal court in Denver include 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.

The charges are punishable by life in prison after federal prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty. Soliman is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to the state charges.

Boulder residents, particularly the Jewish community, described being unnerved by the attack in their city northwest of Denver that’s home to the University of Colorado.

The group “Run for Their Lives” had been demonstrating weekly downtown. Soliman got near the demonstration on Pearl Street, a pedestrian mall lined with shops and restaurants, by posing as a gardener.

Federal authorities alleged Soliman planned the attack for a year. After his arrest, Soliman told police he sought “to kill all Zionist people,” a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel, according to an FBI affidavit.

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, federal officials said

Soliman was living with his wife and their five children in an apartment in Colorado Springs at the time of the attack. He worked a series of low-paying jobs.

The couple divorced in April. Soliman recently dropped his opposition to removing his family from the U.S.

Prosecutors in Soliman’s state case argued he planned for more harm than he carried out. He tried twice to buy a gun and was denied, they said.

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.

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.

Gruver reported from Fort Collins, Colorado.