Preliminary hearing to be held today in firebomb attack on Colorado pro-Israel rally

Colorado prosecutors are set to lay out their evidence today against a man charged with murder, attempted murder and other crimes in a firebomb attack last month on demonstrators showing their support for Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Investigators say Mohamed Sabry Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall on June 1. But he threw just two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!” Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.

Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, had been living in the US illegally with his family.

The purpose of today’s preliminary hearing in state court in Boulder is for District Judge Nancy Woodruff Salomone to determine if there’s enough evidence for Soliman to go on trial there.

Soliman already faced dozens of charges in state court as well as hate crime charges in federal court when state prosecutors added murder charges following the death of an 82-year-old woman, Karen Diamond, who was injured in the attack died as the result of her injuries. Last week, Assistant US Attorney Laura Cramer-Babycz told US District Judge John L. Kane that federal prosecutors have not decided yet whether to file additional charges against Soliman related to Diamond’s death.

Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. But Soliman’s federal defense lawyers say he should not have been charged with hate crimes because the evidence shows he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.

An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.

Soliman has pleaded not guilty to the hate crime charges. He has not been asked to enter a plea to the state charges yet.