biography
| name: |
Sirhan, (Bishara) Sirhan
|
pronunciation:
[sirhahn]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1943– )
|
| biography:
| Assassin of Senator Robert Kennedy, born in Palestine. He was a refugee whose family settled in Pasadena, CA, in 1956, having fled from Israeli bombings in Beirut. When Robert Kennedy, who was running for the presidential nomination in 1968, took an overtly pro-Israeli stance in order to gain Jewish votes, Sirhan was enraged and shot him. At his trial, he said that Kennedy's repeated promises of arms for Israel ‘burned him up’. He was found guilty of premeditated murder of the first degree, and the death penalty was recommended. Senator Edward Kennedy's plea for lenience led to this sentence being commuted to life imprisonment. |
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