Sirhan B. Sirhan, accused of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, intends to “go to the gas chamber silent” unless he can turn his trial into an anti-Israel propaganda forum, according to an exclusive report in the September issue of Ramparts magazine by Mahmoud Abdel Hadi. The writer is a correspondent for Akhbar el-Yom, a Cairo newspaper. He secured private interviews with the Sirhan family. The report said that Sirhan told one of his brothers that he intends to make the trial “a public and political forum for the Arab position…he wants the major networks to broadcast the entire trial.” If he does not get maximum press and television coverage for an indictment of Israel and Zionism, he will refuse to testify, according to the report.
The Ramparts article said Sirhan saw the trial as an “opportunity” to present the Arab case. The author wrote that Sirhan’s family was “confused and bitter (and) surprised that they have not gotten any financial help from Arab consulates in Los Angeles.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
