Man convicted of Robert Kennedy’s murder was set to be released from prison

A California council on Friday recommended granting parole to Sirhan Sirhan, convicted in 1968 for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, brother of former US President John F. Kennedy.

Sirhan, 77, has been behind bars for more than half a century. The parole board’s decision does not determine your immediate release, but sets the stage for a period of analysis that can take up to three months and then it has to be reviewed by the Governor of California.

Sentenced to life imprisonment, Sirhan had attempted parole 15 times. This Friday, for the first time, the Los Angeles prosecution did not oppose the request.

Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of John F. Kennedy also assassinated, He was shot dead in the early morning hours of June 6, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, after delivering a speech for his victory in the Democratic Party’s primary election in California on his way to the presidential race.

The then senator died the next day at 42 years old.

Sirhan, a native of Jerusalem and the United States since 1956, was convicted of the crime. At the age of 24, he confessed to the murder in court but said he did not remember how it happened.

He was captured at the scene of the crime, still with the gun in his hand. However, for years emerged rumors that there was a second murderer. Paul Schrade, who was with “Bobby” Kennedy during the shooting and who was injured, is among those who supported this hypothesis. “It’s a good decision,” Schrade told the agency. AFP this Friday, a few minutes after the vote was public. “I am truly grateful to the parole board for giving Sirhan the opportunity to return home,” he added.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the late senator’s 11 sons, has also expressed doubts in the past about the authorship of the crime.

The controversy over the case began at Sirhan’s trial, when prosecutors presented an autopsy report showing Kennedy was shot from behind. Sirhan was in front.

In 2013, a US judge who dismissed one of Sihran’s appeals dismissed the version claiming that the direction of the bullet could be explained by “chaos” as Kennedy may have turned his head during the shooting.

(With information from AFP)

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