Pearl Street attack suspect appears in federal court for hate crime charge

Yahoo

9 hours ago

DENVER (KDVR) — The man accused of throwing incendiary devices at people on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall appeared before a federal judge on Friday afternoon on a federal hate crime charge.
The hearing took place on the heels of another state hearing that took place in Boulder on Thursday.
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Mohamed Soliman sat in a jury box at the federal courthouse in downtown Denver for the entire hearing.
He was told about the hate crime charge.
Soliman said 'yes' in Arabic through a translator when he was asked if he understood the court process and why he was there.
He was wearing a green jail uniform, and his hands and ankles were handcuffed.
A United States Marshall sat behind him.
The 45-year-old Egyptian national sat still and did not look at the full courtroom during the initial hearing.
One of the first questions the judge asked was if he had a copy of the criminal complaint that detailed the crime he was accused of.
Federal prosecutors outlined their case against Soliman in that complaint. The court record detailed why investigators believe the attack was a hate crime.
5 people and a dog were hurt in that attack.
The incident happened on Sunday, when the Egyptian national allegedly threw makeshift incendiary devices at a group of demonstrators, were calling for the release of Hamas hostages.
An FBI agent said, in the complaint, 'Soliman threw two lit Molotov cocktails at individuals participating in a pro-Israel gathering'.
That agent went on to say, 'Soliman yelled 'Free Palestine!' and the Molotov cocktails ignited.'
In the complaint, the agent also said, 'He (Soliman) stated that he wanted to kill all Zionist people and wished they were all dead. Soliman stated he would do it again.'
Soliman stated that he hated the Zionist group and did this because he needed to stop them from taking over 'our land,' which he explained to be Palestine.
FOX31 Legal Analyst Christopher Decker said prosecutors will have to dig deep into what motivated Soliman's alleged actions.
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'Federal prosecutors in this case are going to be looking to uncover and present evidence of the motive and bias behind this criminal act and to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it was based on his bias against the race, religion, or national origin of the victims involved,' Decker said.
Just a day before, 118 charges were filed in state court in connection with this case. Those charges include attempted murder and assault charges.
Soliman's next hearing is set for June 18.
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