Federal judge blocks immediate deportation of Boulder attack suspect's family

Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post on Jun 4, 2025

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DENVER — A federal judge issued an order Wednesday to prevent the deportation of the wife and five children of an Egyptian man charged in the weekend firebombing attack in Boulder.

U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the family of Mohammed Sabry Soliman, 45, to halt deportation proceedings of his wife and children who were taken into federal custody Tuesday by U.S. immigration officials.

“Defendants SHALL NOT REMOVE Hayem El Gamal and her five children from the District of Colorado or the United States unless or until this Court or the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit vacates this order,” Gallagher wrote in the order, issued at 2:01 p.m.

The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday confirmed officials detained Soliman’s wife, Hayam Salah Alsaid Ahmed El Gamal, 41, and his 18-year-old daughter, Habiba Mohamed Sabrey Farag Soliman. Authorities also detained his four minor children, two sons and two daughters, but did not name the younger children or detail their ages. All are Egyptian citizens.

Mohammed Sabry Soliman is accused of carrying out a terror attack on the Pearl Street Mall on Sunday in which he is alleged to have shouted “Free Palestine” and used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to burn people gathered on the popular pedestrian mall for a weekly demonstration urging the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Fifteen people and a dog were hurt in the attack; all are expected to survive. Soliman faces dozens of state criminal charges and a federal hate crime count in connection with the attack, which has shaken Colorado’s Jewish community.

Soliman lived in the Colorado Springs area with his family. He spent 17 years living in Kuwait before he arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023. He overstayed his visa and sought political asylum in September 2022. He was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that also expired.

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