Family of Boulder terror attack suspect files petition demanding release from ICE custody
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The family of the man accused of carrying out a deadly firebomb attack on peaceful protesters in Boulder filed a petition in federal court on Monday, demanding their release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
According to the petition, Hayam El Gamal and her five children – ages four to eighteen – have been held in a Texas immigration detention center for over four months. They were taken into custody in early June, shortly after the arrest of Mohamed Soliman, El Gamal’s husband.
Soliman is accused of launching a violent attack at a peaceful gathering on Boulder's Pearl Street, using a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack peaceful protestors marching to bring awareness to Israeli hostages in Gaza. One person was killed and over a dozen others were injured in the attack.
Court documents obtained by KRDO13 in June confirmed that Soliman lived at a home in the Cimarron Hills neighborhood of El Paso County with his wife and their five children.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Soliman and his family had been in the U.S. since 2022, seeking lawful asylum from Egypt. Soliman was reportedly living in the country illegally after his work permit expired in March of this year.
In the days following the attack, Soliman's family was swiftly taken into ICE custody.
But just a day after DHS officials confirmed the family was being processed for expedited removal from the country, a federal judge blocked their deportation. Days later, the same judge ruled the family could not be deported without first receiving due process.
Attorneys file petition demanding family's release
In a statement released Oct. 7, the family's attorney, Eric Lee, shared that a group of attorneys had filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on Monday, demanding the release of Hayam El Gamal and her five children from ICE custody.
A writ of habeas corpus is a legal order demanding that the government provide a lawful reason to justify why a person is being detained.
According to attorneys, the FBI has confirmed the family had no prior knowledge of Soliman’s plans and had not been involved in the attack, and the DHS had similar findings in their investigation.
Lee revealed that in September, an immigration judge ordered the family to be released on bond after finding they posed "neither a danger nor a flight risk."
But according to the family's attorneys, DHS invoked a rarely used regulation to override that order, filing an "automatic stay" less than an hour later. The filing effectively keeps the family in detention indefinitely until a federal judge intervenes.
"This continued detention is unlawful and punitive, serving no legitimate purpose other than to punish an innocent family – victims themselves – for the acts of another person," the attorneys wrote in the statement.
The attorneys are calling on the public to demand their release and say the family must be given space to grieve and heal from the trauma of recent months.
As of Wednesday morning, ICE and DHS had not publicly responded to the filing.
Read the full statement from the family's attorneys below:
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