Robert Kennedy’s assassin denied parole for 15th time

Washington/ Chicago, Feb. 11: Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Democratic presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy in 1968, was denied parole for the 15th time on Wednesday, a California prison official said.

Sirhan, 71, had a suitability hearing at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, the California Board of Parole Hearings said on its website.

Sirhan will be up again for parole in five years, said Luis Patino, a spokesperson for the California department of corrections and rehabilitation.

The Palestinian- born Sirhan is serving a life sentence for gunning down Kennedy, 42, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. The shooting occurred minutes after the US Senator from New York and former US attorneygeneral gave a speech after winning the California Democratic primary. Kennedy died the next day.

Sirhan was sentenced to death in 1969. His sentence was commuted to life in prison after California banned the death penalty.

Paul Schrade, a 91- yearold Kennedy confidant and among the five people wounded in the shooting, told the board that Sirhan should be granted parole since evidence showed that a second gunman killed Kennedy.

“The evidence clearly shows you were not the gunman who shot Robert Kennedy,” Mr Schrade said in remarks prepared for the hearing.