Man sentenced to life in prison for deadly attack on pro-Israel rally

May 7 (UPI) — A man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to dozens of charges, including first-degree murder, in connection with a deadly firebombing attack June 1 at a Boulder, Colo., rally in support of Israeli hostages.

“If I went back, I would not have done this, as this is not according to the teaching of Islam,” Mohamed Sabry Soliman said through an interpreter before his sentencing, CNN reported. “What I did came out of myself and only myself.” Soliman apologized to the victims of his attack and said he wasn’t asking for leniancy.

Soliman, an Egyptian citizen, faced more than 180 charges in connection with the attack, in which one person died and more than a dozen people were injured. He also faces federal hate crime charges. The death penalty is a possibility in the federal case, and Soliman has offered to plead guilty to those charges for a life sentence, USA Today reported. The government has not responded to that offer.

Prosecutors say Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” and threw Molotov cocktails at people taking part in a rally in downtown Boulder in support of Israeli hostages. Karen Diamond, 82, died of her injuries several weeks later. He allegedly told prosecutors that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” The Washington Post reported.

Survivors of the attack, some of whom were present in court, asked for the maximum sentence. Diamond’s sons sent a statement in which they said their father was also badly injured in the attack, USA Today reported.

“We ask only that the attacker never sees his family again since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again,” the statement said.

Soliman’s attorneys have filed a petition in the federal case, seeking to prevent the deportation of his ex-wife, Hayam El Gamal, and five children, ages 5 to 18, until a federal decision on the plea, The Washington Post reported. Attorneys said the family knew nothing of Soliman’s plans.

After the attack, Soliman’s family was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and held in Texas for months. They were released in late April, returned to Colorado, detained again, and put on another flight before eventually being released.