The best possibility for the American judiciary to release the most famous and oldest Palestinian prisoner in the world may occur during a hearing held by a court today, Friday, after the U.S. prosecution department, for the first time in 53 years, did not oppose the release of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, who was born in occupied Jerusalem 77 years ago and immigrated with his parents and four siblings to the United States at the age of 12.
On June 5, 1968, Sirhan "cast his vote early" in the U.S. presidential elections, which were scheduled for November of that year, but he did so in his own way: he fired four bullets that changed the largest country in the world, killing a candidate who polls indicated was the certain winner, the Democrat Robert Kennedy, the brother of the slain President John Kennedy, who had been assassinated five years prior. Sirhan struck him at the age of 42, just minutes after Kennedy delivered a speech at an election rally packed with supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Sirhan was arrested in the hall where the leading candidate was killed, tried, and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. He has continued to face rejection from 15 appeals submitted for his release from prison, where he has remained for 53 years in Santiago. This time, they reviewed an appeal submitted by a lawyer advocating for elderly prisoners. According to "Al-Arabiya.net", Sirhan, now 77, has always exhibited good behavior in prison, contrasting with his previous claims of innocence. He is no longer considered a threat, and therefore today’s hearing could result in his release and subsequent deportation.
Sirhan, single and without U.S. citizenship, fired .22 caliber rounds from an Iver-Johnson Cadet pistol at the senator, three of which were fatal. He shot him from a distance of just a few centimeters. After his arrest on the day of the assassination, he was tried and sentenced to death, which was changed to life imprisonment three years later. He has always denied committing the act that shocked America and some parts of the world on the first anniversary of the defeat of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in the "Six-Day War" against Israel in 1967.
Since his arrest and imprisonment, Sirhan has attended parole hearings every five years, the most recent being in 2016 when his request was denied. In a video shown below from that time, he stated that he does not remember anything about the assassination or what happened afterward, despite having admitted in 1989 during an interview with British journalist David Frost, who passed away in 2013 from a heart attack, that he killed the senator "because of his unlimited support for Israel and his efforts to send 50 fighter planes to kill Palestinians," as he put it.
Many have followed Sirhan's case, as he was the one who assassinated Robert Francis Kennedy according to information derived from extensive investigations that emerged during his eight-month trial and were reported by U.S. media. A large number of attendees at the election rally witnessed him firing at the senator, who left behind a widow, Ethel Skakel, now 93 years old, who did not stop getting pregnant and giving birth, ultimately having 11 children with Kennedy during their 18 years of marriage, two of whom died.
The summary of Sirhan's case indicates that he was burdened by the anxiety of a candidate promising absolute U.S. support for Israel and providing its air force with more of the famous "Phantom" aircraft of the time. They found that he had written in his diary two weeks before the assassination: "Senator RFK must die. He must be killed." On June 5, 1968, he stole a gun owned by his brother Munir and used it to carry out the assassination in a matter of seconds. Quickly, his brothers Munir and Adel were arrested but were released after proving their innocence.
Many have hinted over time, in numerous books and documentaries, that Sirhan was a victim of a complex and mysterious plot and that he is not the real killer, according to media videos, some of which "Al-Arabiya.net" found on YouTube and elsewhere. They rely on eyewitness accounts, some of which claim to have heard more than eight shots, while others state they heard 13 shots, with some asserting they heard gunfire coming from two guns, not just one.
