Mohamed Sabry Soliman sentenced to life for firebombing protest in Boulder

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Kory Grow

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May 7, 2026

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Mohamed Sabry Soliman.

Boulder Police Dept./AP

A judge sentenced Mohamed Sabry Soliman to life in prison for a deadly attack last year. The Egyptian national U.S. officials say was living illegally in the U.S. was sentenced after throwing two Molotov cocktails at protesters and calling for Hamas to release Israeli hostages in Boulder in the summer of 2025.

“The court finds your choices were acts of terror and they victimized an entire community, and they made everyone in it feel unsafe,” Boulder County District Judge Nancy Salomone told Soliman, according to The Colorado Sun_. She gave the maximum penalty for each of the 101 charges he faced. He will have no opportunity for parole.

Soliman, 46, pleaded guilty on Thursday to killing 82-year-old Karen Diamond in the attack and injuring dozens of others. _The Associated Press _reported that Soliman looked down at his desk while the judge and others spoke. He did, however, apologize to victims of the attack and acknowledged Diamond’s death. Her sons described it as a “fate worse than death,” saying she suffered “indescribable pain” for three weeks after the attack before she died. “There are no words that can express my sadness for her passing,” he said.

Separately, he pleaded not guilty to 12 federal hate crime charges. His attorneys claim that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, available at the federal level, for those charges. Investigators allege Soliman planned the attack for over a year and wanted “to kill all Zionist people.”

Prosecutors claim he hoped to kill 20 participants in the weekly protest at the city’s Pearl Street Mall, an outdoor space, which was organized after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. He allegedly yelled “Free Palestine” when throwing the firebombs. State prosecutors have identified 29 victims, 13 of whom attended the attack and others being in the vicinity. Soliman was charged with animal cruelty, too, as a dog was injured in the attack.

“If I went back, I would not have done this as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,” Soliman told the court. “What I did came out of myself and only myself.” _The New York Times _reports that he also said he believed he deserved the death penalty for his actions. (Colorado does not have the death penalty.