On Oct. 29, at 10:55 a.m., to be exact, the perpetrator of the June 1, 2025 terrorist attack — a firebombing — against a group of Boulder Run For Their Lives walkers, pleaded guilty to all 12 federal charges leveled against him.
Mohamad Sabry Soliman has already been convicted of state charges and is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, plus 2,128 years in prison.
The first federal charge was a hate crime that resulted in the of death Karen Diamond, followed by eight other hate crimes involving bodily injury and intent to kill. The final three federal charges related to the carrying of incendiary devices.
Most significantly, the perpetrator’s guilty plea explicitly acknowledges that he targeted this group of people because of their perceived national origin or religion. Assistant US Attorney Melissa Hindman iterated multiple times while reading aloud the 12 counts that the defendant acted “because of the perceived received religion or national origin of any person” present in front of the Boulder court house, June 1, 2025.
In Hindman’s summary before the court, she stated:
“On June 1, 2025, defendant lit two Molotov cocktails and threw them at a group of people and attempted to kill them because of their actual or perceived Israeli origin or Jewish religion” with intent to cause the death of Karen Diamond and death or bodily harm to others.
In comments after the hearing, Hindman confirmed to surviving victims and others that the perpetrator “projected his hate because of his hate towards Israel and Judaism.”
At the press conference following the hearing, this reporter asked two questions of Peter McNeilly, US Attorney for Colorado: “Did the perpetrator, in fact, plead guilty to the hate crime of anti-Semitism?” “Is the Dept. of Justice saying without equivocation that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism?”
McNeilly responded that this defendant “was driven by hate to commit mass murder, believing the people walking were Jews and Israelis,” and that he targeted them because of this belief. In addition, after citing the same language that Assistant US Attorney Hindman used in court, “perceived religion or national origin,” McNeilly emphasized that “animus towards these groups drove him to commit these acts of violence.”
McNeilly further stated that “anti-Semitism erodes the common ties that bind our nation together and there is no place for it in America.”
One of the survivors of the attack, Natalya Reznik, stated after the hearing, “We witnessed Mohamad Soliman plead guilty to hate crimes he had committed while targeting Jews. Thus, he let down various politicians, journalists and activists, including Democratic congressional candidate Melat Kiros and The New York Times’ columnist Masha Gessen, who have kept claiming the attack was not ant-Semitic but ‘anti-Zionist’ (meaning political). Soliman just admitted his crimes were anti-Semitic and anyone who wants to deny that can no longer channel the murderer. They will have to make their own hypocritical statements without his support.”
Survivor Jean Unger said, “This deal requires him to plead guilty to this crime based on the national origin and religion of his victims, which very clearly and without ambiguity translates into anti-Semitism. I am very pleased with this outcome.”
Survivors Gary and Jody James concurred. “We are grateful for the guilty plea. It is some closure to this chapter. May Karen’s memory be a blessing. We are also grateful for the press conference mentioning our dog being burnt.”
Ed Victor, another survivor, in an interview after the press conference, said he felt relieved. He said it was important to hear the defendant plead guilty to a hate crime, in addition to the crimes he was convicted of by the State of Colorado.
Victor wrote down the time that the defendant said guilty — first at 10:48 when acknowledging to the judge that he understood the plea deal, and again at 10:55 when Hindman explicitly asked if he was pleading guilty, and he responded in the affirmative.
Victor spoke of the Boulder Run For Their Lives’ group having been on the Pearl Street Mall to raise awareness for the hostages kidnapped by Hamas from Israel. The hostages were Israelis, Americans, Argentinians, Thais and others.
The defendant’s guilty plea to a hate crime, said Victor, was an acknowledgment “that [he] targeted us for who we were, as Jews . . . he wasn’t just being anti-Zionist or against Israel; he was against the Jews who happened to be there at that time, peacefully raising awareness for the hostages in Gaza.”
Aaron Brooks, director of Jewish Alliance of Colorado, who arrived at the Pearl Street Mall on June 1, 2025 immediately after the attack, expressed how much he still thinks of those moments and what his friends went through. “I still think about Karen Diamond.”
When asked why it was important to him to come to the federal trial, Brooks said he needed to be a witness to hearing the perpetrator say that this was an anti-Semitic act. “He attacked us because we were Jews. Today he admitted it, and no one can say anymore that this was not anti-Semitic.”
The sentencing hearing will take place on Jan. 7, 2027. It is expected that in addition to Colorado sentence of life without the possibility of parole plus 2,128 years, the attacker will receive a federal sentence of life plus 50 years — served in a federal penitentiary.
© IJN 2026