Colorado firebombing suspect pleads guilty to federal hate crimes charges

A man accused of firebombing a group of protesters advocating for the release of Israeli hostages in the US state of Colorado has now changed his plea to federal hate crime charges to guilty.

Prosecutors said Mohamed Sabry Soliman threw Molotov cocktails at the group of demonstrators in June 2025 - injuring at least 12 people, one of whom died.

He pleaded guilty in May to 101 state charges, including first-degree murder - resulting in a sentence of life in prison - but initially pleaded not guilty in the federal case.

Prosecutors want Soliman to be sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years over the federal charges, according to CBS, the BBC's US partner. He is due to be sentenced in January.

Authorities said Soliman planned the attack for a year, watching videos on explosives before driving from his home in Colorado Springs to the Boulder protest.

While he hurled the Molotov cocktails at the crowd on 1 June, 2025, he shouted "Free Palestine". The group were members of Run for Their Lives in Colorado, which met weekly to support the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during the 7 October attacks.

Karen Diamond, 82, died from injuries caused by the attack three weeks later. Her family said her husband, Lou, was also severely burned and had to recover for a month in a hospital burn unit.

Soliman, an Egyptian national, told police after he was arrested that he wanted to "kill all Zionist people", according to court documents.

He came to California in 2022 on a non-immigrant visa that expired in February 2023, according to CBS.

The firebombing escalated concerns about antisemitic violence in the US, taking place shortly after a fatal shooting outside a Jewish centre in Washington DC.