By UPI | Breitbart
June 25 (UPI) — The 45-year-old man accused of using a flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to burn people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colo., has been charged with 12 counts of hate crime, according to the Justice Department on Wednesday.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, earlier was charged with a single hate crime count for the June 1 attack on Run for Their Lives during a pro-Israel demonstration at Port Street Mall, DOJ said. He also faces 118 charges in state court, including attempted murder.
If convicted in federal court, Soliman could face the maximum sentence of life in prison.
In the indictment, which was unsealed one day later on Wednesday and obtained by Axios, he has been charged with nine federal counts of violence against individuals because of actual or perceived race, color, religion or national origin, and three counts involving fire or explosives to commit a felony.
The Colorado Springs resident was booked into the Boulder County jail after the attack near the county courthouse. On June 2, state bond was set at $10 million and the same day he was charged with a federal crime.
According to the federal indictment, Soliman told FBI investigators that he viewed “anyone supporting the exist [sic] of Israel on our land” to be “Zionist.” The defendant said that he decided to take “revenge from these people.”
Soliman said that he learned of Run for Their Lives through internet searches for “Zionist” events and that he identified the “Zionist” group when he saw the flags and signs they carried at the courthouse.
At least 15 people were injured. Two were airlifted to a hospital in Aurora near Denver, an FBI official said. Boulder is 30 miles north of Denver.
Soliman, an Egyptian national, entered California in August 2022 on a B2 visa that expired in February 2023 and his asylum claim was pending, said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.