Molotov cocktail attack suspect charged with hate crime in US. Photo / Getty Images
Molotov cocktail attack suspect charged with hate crime in US. Photo / Getty Images
The suspect in a Molotov cocktail attack on a march by Jewish protesters in Colorado will face an additional 12 charges for carrying out a hate crime, the US Justice Department says.
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national, already faces more than 100 criminal counts for allegedly throwing firebombs andspraying burning gasoline at a group of people who gathered on June 1 in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
US President Donald Trump cited the attack, which injured 15 people, to justify his decision to ban travel from 12 countries to the United States to “protect” the nation from “foreign terrorists”.
Authorities have said Soliman, 45, was in the US illegally at the time of the incident as he had overstayed his tourist visa.
Alongside the newly announced federal charges, Soliman faces 28 attempted murder charges as well as a bevy of other counts relating to his alleged use of violence.
He also faces a count of animal cruelty for a dog that was hurt.
Police who rushed to the scene of the attack found 16 unused Molotov cocktails and a backpack weed sprayer containing gasoline that investigators say Soliman had intended to use as a makeshift flamethrower.
In bystander videos, the attacker can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “Killers!”
It came less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect who shouted “Free Palestine” was arrested.
