One by one, they stood up in court and recalled the moment when Molotov cocktails exploded around them.<\/p>\n
They described how they tried to beat out the flames that scorched their clothes and burned their friends. How, nearly a year later, they remain haunted by the smell of gasoline and burned hair.<\/p>\n
On Thursday in Boulder, Colo., many survivors of the antisemitic firebombing attack there spoke publicly for the first time at a hearing in which the assailant pleaded guilty. The defendant, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, said he accepted responsibility for what he did, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison.<\/p>\n
Mr. Soliman pleaded guilty to 101 charges, including one count of murder for the death of Karen Diamond, 82, in the attack against a group of marchers calling for the release of hostages captured by Hamas in its October 2023 raid on Israel.<\/p>\n
The firebombing attack wounded more than a dozen other people, horrified Boulder\u2019s tightknit Jewish community and intensified fears of the rising antisemitic violence in the United States.<\/p>\n
It sowed \u201cterror, fear and death,\u201d District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.<\/p>\n
Some survivors said they now searched for threats wherever they went. Others worry they could be targeted again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m alone and close my eyes I can vividly see Karen\u2019s body in flames,\u201d Orrie Gartner, who was at the march, said in court.<\/p>\n
One man said he scanned for exits whenever he left home. Another said he now hid his Star of David necklace, while one woman said she wore hers in defiance of hatred. Others said the attack had pierced their illusions that the college town of Boulder was a safe place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned the full meaning of the expression \u2018Living Hell,\u2019\u201d Ms. Diamond\u2019s sons, Ethan and Andrew, said in a letter read in court on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ms. Diamond\u2019s husband, Lou, was also severely burned in the attack and spent a month in excruciating pain recovering in a hospital burn unit, next door to his wife\u2019s room, their sons said. Ms. Diamond died there three weeks after the attack.<\/p>\n
Their sons said the Diamonds had just run together in the Bolder Boulder 10K race, where Ms. Diamond had placed fourth in her age group. The couple loved hiking, gardening and attending symphony performances, and they had been planning a trip to France.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, none of those things will happen,\u201d their sons said in their statement.<\/p>\n
In the gallery, victims and their families cried and clutched tissues handed out by courthouse staff.<\/p>\n
After the victims\u2019 statements, Mr. Soliman, an Egyptian national who immigrated to the United States in 2022, spoke publicly for the first time, saying in Arabic that he regretted carrying out the attack and that he deserved the death penalty.<\/p>\n
But he denied that his crimes had been driven by anti-Jewish hatred, then launched into a rambling diatribe against Zionism, which he described as \u201cthe enemy.\u201d He also condemned the deaths of children during the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I am against Israel, and I can\u2019t deny that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s my right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chief District Judge Nancy W. Salomone told Mr. Soliman that his \u201cchoices were acts of terror, and they victimized an entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou chose to victimize these people because they were members of the Jewish community,\u201d she told him.<\/p>\n
Mr. Soliman also sought to absolve his wife and five children from any connection with the attack, saying they would have tried to stop him if they had known his plans.<\/p>\n