May 7 (UPI) — A man pleaded guilty Thursday to dozens of charges, including first-degree murder, in connection with a deadly firebombing attack June 1 at a Boulder, Colo., rally in support of Israeli hostages.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian citizen, faced more than 180 charges in connection with the attack, in which one person died and more than a dozen people were injured. He faces life in prison without parole for the state charges and also faces federal hate crime charges. The death penalty is a possibility in the federal case, and Soliman has offered to plead guilty to those charges for a life sentence, USA Today reported. The government has not responded to that offer.
Prosecutors say Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” and threw Molotov cocktails at people taking part in a rally in downtown Boulder in support of Israeli hostages. Karen Diamond, 82, died of her injuries several weeks later. He allegedly told prosecutors that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” The Washington Post reported.
Survivors of the attack, some of whom were present in court, asked for the maximum sentence. Diamond’s sons sent a statement in which they said their father was also badly injured in the attack, USA Today reported.
“We ask only that the attacker never sees his family again since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again,” the statement said.
Soliman’s attorneys have filed a petition in the federal case, seeking to prevent the deportation of his ex-wife, Hayam El Gamal, and five children, ages 5 to 18, until a federal decision on the plea, The Washington Post reported. Attorneys said the family knew nothing of Soliman’s plans.
After the attack, Soliman’s family was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held in Texas for months. They were released in late April, returned to Colorado, detained again, and put on another flight before eventually being released.
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