Boulder Firebombing Attacker Pleads Guilty to Federal Hate Crimes, Faces Life Plus 50 Years

Mohamed Soliman pleaded guilty Thursday to nine hate crime counts and three weapons counts for firebombing demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, in June 2025. The attack killed Karen Diamond, 82, and injured a dozen others, according to federal prosecutors.

Soliman is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to state charges last spring. The federal case is separate from the state case; see how federal and state law differ. Federal prosecutors said Thursday they would seek a life term plus 50 years for the dozen federal counts.

Assistant US Attorney Melissa Hindman told the court that Soliman “violently used the explosives to cause permanent and life-threatening injuries to several of these victims and cause the death of Karen Diamond.” Soliman spoke through an interpreter and answered the judge’s questions briefly, CNN reported.

Attack on a weekly demonstration

The demonstrators, a group called “Run for Their Lives,” marched weekly in downtown Boulder in support of hostages taken in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Prosecutors said Soliman attacked because the demonstrators were Jewish. Shouting “Free Palestine,” he lit and threw two Molotov cocktails, CNN reported. Federal authorities said he had planned the attack for a year. He told police after his arrest that he sought “to kill all Zionist people,” according to an FBI affidavit.

He entered the US in 2022 on a tourist visa that expired the next year, federal officials said. He brought 18 Molotov cocktails to the demonstration but threw only two, prosecutors said.

US District Judge John Kane set sentencing for January 7 and said he had not decided whether to accept the prosecutors’ recommendation. “I have not made up my mind about the sentence,” Kane said. “Sometimes I follow that advice and sometimes I don’t.”

Reporting based on coverage by CNN.