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Judge says hate crime prosecution in Boulder, Colorado, attack can proceed

A US federal judge says that prosecutors can proceed with a hate crime charge against a man accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at a group of people demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, appears in federal court in Denver for a preliminary hearing following the June 1 attack in Boulder that injured at least eight people.

Investigators say he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.”

Soliman’s defense attorney, David Kraut, urges Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella not to allow the case to move forward. Kraut says Soliman’s anti-Zionist statements and his online search for a “Zionist” event to attack shows he targeted the demonstrators because of their perceived political views — their assumed support for the nation of Israel and Zionism. An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.

Assistant US Attorney Melissa Hindman says 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 says Soliman did not use the term Israel. But she points 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 says.

Starnella acknowledges 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 says.

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 US 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 testifies 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 says. The significance of that year and battle were also discussed in documents found in Soliman’s car, he testifies.

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 testifies. An unspecified number of those injured remain in the hospital, he says.

Authorities consider 15 people and a dog as victims of the attack. 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.