Sirhan Sirhan
SIRHAN Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating New York Senator Robert Francis Kennedy, has been stabbed at a California prison, according to US media.
In a statement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said “officers responded quickly” to the attack.
Authorities said a stabbing happened at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility – a prison near San Diego on Friday afternoon.
Sirhan, whose condition is stable, was not named in the statement, but citing unnamed law enforcement sources, multiple US media reports have identified 75-year-old Sirhan as the victim.
Sirhan is serving a life sentence at the Richard J Donovan Correctional Facility, where the stabbing took place.
The suspected attacker, a fellow inmate, has been placed in isolation, according to TMZ which first reported the incident.
No motive has been revealed for the attack.
Sirhan was convicted of murdering presidential hopeful Kennedy, who he shot three times at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968.
Kennedy was shot shortly after declaring victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary to cheering crowds.
The New York senator died in hospital 24 hours later. He was the brother of Democratic president John F Kennedy who was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
Kennedy was buried at Arlington Cemetery, near his brother John.
At his trial in 1969, Sirhan was originally sentenced to death. Three years later, his sentence was commuted to life in prison when California briefly outlawed capital punishment.
A Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, Sirhan has claimed he has no recollection of shooting Kennedy.
In a TV interview, Sirhan said he felt betrayed by Kennedy’s support for Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, the BBC reported.
