LOS ANGELES: The man convicted of shooting dead Robert Kennedy in 1968 was denied parole in California on Wednesday, thwarting his latest effort to leave prison.
Sirhan Sirhan, now 78, has been behind bars for more than five decades — despite doubts that he fired the shots that likely changed the course of US politics.
Kennedy, the younger brother of slain president John F. Kennedy, was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination himself when he was gunned down in a Los Angeles hotel.
Sirhan’s latest request for parole — he became eligible in 1972 — was denied by a California board on Wednesday.
A different board had greenlit his release in August 2021, but California Governor Gavin Newsom reversed that decision in January of the following year.
Newsom, who is also a Democrat, said at the time that Sirhan “poses an unreasonable threat to public safety.”
He said the decision was based on several factors “including Mr. Sirhan’s refusal to accept responsibility for his crime.”
Sirhan was convicted and sentenced to death in 1969 after pleading guilty, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment several years later.
Doubts around Sirhan’s culpability have swirled since his trial, when it was revealed that Kennedy was shot at point-blank range from behind, but witnesses said Sirhan was standing in front of him.
Later, evidence emerged that as many as 13 shots were fired, yet Sirhan’s gun could only hold eight bullets.
Suspicion over the verdict led Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, to visit Sirhan in prison.
“I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence,” he told the Washington Post in 2018.
“I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father.”
He and his youngest brother, Douglas, supported Sirhan’s 2021 attempt at release.
A Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan said at the time of the assassination that his actions were motivated by Kennedy’s support for military sales to Israel.
During a 2016 parole hearing, he said he had drunk too much the night of the shooting, and that his prior confession was the result of bad legal advice from his lawyer.
Robert Kennedy’s assassin denied parole again
https://arab.news/b2y5q
Robert Kennedy’s assassin denied parole again
- Sirhan B. Sirhan was convicted in 1969 after pleading guilty of assassinating Robert Kennedy in 1968, but doubts have swirled as evidence emerged that as many as 13 shots were fired, yet Sirhan’s gun could hold only 8 bullets
Second death in Minneapolis crackdown heaps pressure on Trump
- Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city
MINNEAPOLIS: The Trump administration faced intensifying pressure Sunday over its mass immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, after federal agents shot dead a second US citizen and graphic cell phone footage again contradicted officials’ immediate description of the incident.
Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.
President Donald Trump’s administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents — as it did after Good’s death — pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him.
However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.
The video further inflamed ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal agents, with around 1,000 people participating in a demonstration Sunday.
After top officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.
Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti’s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “Just that I’m grieved for them.”
“I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child,” she told Fox News show “The Sunday Briefing.”
She said more clarity would come as an investigation progresses.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.
Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said: “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”
‘Joint’ probe
Their comments came after multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities.
“There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
The Trump administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good’s killing.
Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: “What’s the plan, Donald Trump?“
“What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?“
Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants.
Trump has repeatedly amplified the racially tinged accusations, including on Sunday when he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!“
The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump’s claim, telling reporters “it’s not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we’d be having a different conversation. But he’s sending armed masked men.”
Court order
Since “Operation Metro Surge” began, many residents have carried whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.
Local authorities have sued the federal government seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing set for Monday.
Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump’s domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off sidewalks — including children — and dramatic stories of US citizens being detained proliferate.
Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday forcefully condemned Pretti’s killing, saying in a statement it should be a “wake-up call” that core US values “are increasingly under assault.”
The former president and first lady blasted Trump and his government as seeming “eager to escalate the situation.”
