Security For Sirhan Trial

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31881, 8 January 1969, Page 11

Security For Sirhan Trial

(N.Z.P.. 4. -Reuter—Copyright) LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7. Sirhan Bishara Sirhan will go on trial in a heavily • guarded courtroom in Los Angeles today for the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy six months ago.

The 24-year-old Jordanian immigrant will be taken from his cell on the thirteenth floor of the Los Angeles Hall of Justice to the courtroom five floors below through corridors bullet-proofed by three-quarter-inch thick steel plates. This is to prevent any possibility of a repetition of events five years ago in Dallas, Texas, where Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of killing President John Kennedy, was himself murdered before being brought to trial.

Sirhan has already pleaded not guilty to charges of killing Senator Kennedy, younger brother of the former President-—and wounding five others in Los Angeles last June 5.

Jury Selection The trial is due to begin at 5.30 a.m. on Wednesday, New Zealand time, and is expected to last three months —with the first month taken up by selection of a jury. Once the jurors are selected and sworn in, they will be locked up for the rest of the trial. Superior Court Judge Herbert Walker has ruled that they can be visited by wives and husbands at week-ends. The defence is expected to challenge every candidate for jury service with prolonged and detailed questions. Would-be' jury members will be asked their feelings on the death penalty, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the opinion of Sirhan they have

formed from reading newspapers and watching television.

Sirhan’s three-man defence team has said it will direct its efforts to saving Sirhan’s life. Public prosecutors have said they will ask for the death penalty. Sirhan was seized by eyewitnesses immediately after the shooting of Senator Kennedy. He has been held in the building which houses the courtroom since September. Use Of TV About 30 reporters and some 30 members of the public will be admitted to the small courtroom. The overflow of reporters from all over the world will be accommodated in a room four floors below the courtroom and will watch the trial on closed-circuit television. The televising of the trial by concealed cameras at the back of the courtroom will set a precedent in United States law.