DENVER — The family of the man accused of carrying out the Boulder terror attack in June filed a petition in federal court Monday demanding their release after the Department of Homeland Security blocked a judge’s ruling to let the family out on bond last month.
Hayam El Gamal, the wife of suspected Boulder attacker Mohammed Soliman, and her five children have been detained for more than four months at an immigration detention center in Texas.
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Court documents show El Gamal filed a writ of habeas corpus on Monday in the federal court in the Western District of Texas. A writ of habeas corpus demands that the entity detailing someone show a lawful reason why that person remains in custody.
Those documents also detail how an immigration judge in September granted a $15,000 bond to release all six family members. El Gamal has five children ranging in age from 4 to 18. The Department of Homeland Security objected to the family’s release, saying they were a flight risk.
Eric Lee, one of El Gamal’s attorneys, said the family had arranged for housing in the United States upon their release, allowing them to continue attending their immigration hearings.
After the judge’s ruling, Homeland Security invoked an automatic stay, which means the family will remain in custody for another 130 days, according to documents.
“This is all a vindictive reaction to the attacks that were carried out, not by them, but by another person," Lee told Denver7 Investigates during a phone call Tuesday. "That’s not how things work in this country. You can’t be detained for months because of something somebody else did."
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El Gamal and her children were taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the days following the June 1 attack on a peaceful protest demanding the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. One person died as a result of the attack, and more than a dozen were injured.
Mohammed Soliman, 45, is facing both federal and state charges related to the attack and is accused of throwing Molotov cocktail-like devices on the crowd.
Lee said Soliman’s family cooperated with police after the incident and helped law enforcement with the investigation, and should not be punished for Soliman’s actions.
“This is an attack on everyone’s rights,” Lee said. “Indefinite detention without a lawful basis violates the Constitution.”
