| The murderer who assassinated Robert Kennedy 53 years ago is released on parole? Kyo Brewery

File photo of the murderer, Sohan (left), who applied for parole on June 18, 1997, was denied. Photo: Associated Press

A parole application recently passed by the California Parole Board has resurfaced in front of the world of a shocking assassination case 53 years ago.

According to US media reports, the parole application of Sohan, the murderer of Robert Kennedy, who assassinated the brother of the 35th PRESIDENT of the United States in 1968, was approved. Sohan, 77, has been in jail for more than 50 years.

Robert Kennedy's widow, 93,000, issued a statement on Sept. 7 saying: "The killer should not be paroled. Her children were also divided into two factions: two sons supported parole, while six of the other seven opposed, including Joseph Kennedy II, a former member of the House of Representatives and now the backbone of the Kennedy family.

Support for Israel Robert F. Kennedy was therefore targeted

1968 was a turbulent year. The Robert F. Kennedy assassination took place in the early hours of June 5, 1968. Two months earlier, on April 4, Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the black civil rights movement in the United States, had just been assassinated by racists at the age of 39.

Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. attorney general, was a U.S. senator at the time of his assassination and was only 42 years old.

On the day of the assassination, Robert F. Kennedy had just finished the Democratic primary in California and won the victory. At the time, he was in second place in the Democratic Party in terms of popularity and was expected to become the Democratic presidential candidate, in the final race against Nixon, the republican presidential candidate who later won.

Late at night after winning the California primary, Robert F. Kennedy addressed supporters in a ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. At the time, the Secret Service was not yet responsible for defending presidential candidates, so Robert Kennedy's bodyguards were only three people: a former FBI agent, a former football player, and a former decathlete.

After the speech, when Robert Kennedy was surrounded by supporters, Sohan stepped forward and fired a series of shots at him with his revolver. Robert Kennedy was shot 3 times, one of which was between the head and the neck. This led to his death 26 hours after being taken to the hospital.

The killer, Sohan, was a Palestinian born in Jerusalem. Robert F. Kennedy was targeted by him for supporting Israel's stance. The assassination was chosen on June 5 because June 5, 1968, was the first anniversary of the Third Middle East War. In the Third Middle East War, the Arab coalition was defeated. And robert kennedy happened to have a public event that day.

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was less than 5 years after the assassination of his brother John F. Kennedy.

The killers were lucky enough to catch up with California to drastically reduce the death penalty

Sohan was arrested and sentenced to death after nearly a year of litigation. During the lawsuit, Sohan's lawyers tried to prove that Sohan was insane, and Sohan also claimed that he only remembered bringing a gun into the hotel, and the details were not remembered. However, Sohan repeatedly admitted that he had assassinated Robert Kennedy.

Sohan's lawyers also changed tactics to try to prove that the key bullet that led to Robert Kennedy's death was not fired by Sohan's gun, and a second gun was fired at the scene. Sohan's lawyer determined that the bullets used as evidence had been swapped.

The fate of the Kennedy brothers is really the same. Of course, there are more conspiracy theories about the John F. Kennedy assassination. In the 3 years since Kennedy's assassination, 18 key witnesses have died in an incredible succession.

In his book CIA Crime and Punishment: 60 Years of CIA Secret History, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner argues that Oswald, the killer of John F. Kennedy, is linked to the Soviet KGB13. A month before the assassination, Oswald called the Soviet Embassy in Mexico to inquire about the results of his application for a tourist visa to the Soviet Union.

The CIA also found that Oswald was a former U.S. Marine, married a Soviet woman, lived in the Soviet Union, and was later repatriated. The information the CIA got was somehow ignored. Many U.S. intelligence agents believe that either the Soviet Union or Oswald assassinated Kennedy in retaliation for the CIA's assassination of Castro.

After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the CIA itself cleaned up the interior, conducting an investigation into every employee of Slavic descent.

Sohan's background was less complicated, he was sentenced to death, but in time for 1972, California drastically reduced the death penalty, and he was changed to life in prison.

In the more than 50 years of imprisonment, Sohan has applied for parole 16 times. None of the first 15 attempts were made. It's a bit like Old Red in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. But this year the application was approved. Largely because Los Angeles County Attorney General Jascon introduced reforms, the Lo County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Sohan that year, did not send representatives to participate in parole hearings.

There are still two levels to go before the murderer is still a little far from freedom

In fact, whether a detained criminal can obtain parole, only the parole board approves the parole application is not counted, but only recommended. This is followed by a 120-day review period, after which the governor has the power to "maintain, reject or modify" the parole proposal.

California Governor Newsom is currently upset. He is now facing a republican vote to remove him, which was revealed around September 14. If Newsom gets through the storm, it is better to say, but if it can't be crossed, Sohan's parole will have to be replaced.

So, Sohan is still far from being free. But spending most of your life in prison, is it really a good choice to go out?

Old Red said in The Shawshank Redemption that there is no essential difference between being in prison and outside prison. You are step by step, at ease to become a part of society, neither too much expectation, nor too negative, what should be given to you, through the hand of fate will naturally be given to you, what should be deprived, through the hand of time will naturally be taken away.

I don't know if Sohan resonates with this passage.

|, a special contributor to the Beijing News Xu Lifan (Columnist)

Edit | He Rui

Proofreading | Zhao Lin