Posted on 08/28/21
| News Source: i24
Sirhan was said at his trial to have hated Robert F. Kennedy because of the latter's support for Israel
Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian refugee convicted of assassinating U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) in 1968, was granted release by a California parole board on Friday, state officials said.
Whether Sirhan, 77, is ultimately freed from prison is now up to the parole board's legal staff which has 120 days to finalize the decision. The governor of California then has 30 days to let the decision stand or reverse it.
Sirhan is a Christian Palestinian, and it was alleged at his trial to that he hated Kennedy because of the latter's support for Israel.
However, not everyone was convinced of his guilt, including Robert F Kennedy Jr., who told The Washington Post in 2018 that he had visited Sirhan in the California prison where he was serving his sentence, and had become convinced that an injustice had been perpetrated.
"I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence," he told the paper.
"I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father.
“I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face,” Douglas Kennedy, another of RFK's children, said. “I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.”
Six of Kennedy’s nine surviving children, however, said they were shocked by the vote. They urged Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing a recall election in California, to reverse the parole board’s decision and keep Sirhan behind bars.
“He took our father from our family and he took him from America,” the six siblings wrote in a statement late Friday. “We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.
The statement was signed by Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.