Parole board cancels release date for Sirhan

A California state parole board canceled the prison parole date of Sen. Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, following demands by citizens' groups and 42 members of the US House of Representatives that he be kept in custody.

Mr. Sirhan was to have been released on September 1, 1984, at which time he would have spent 16 years in prison, three years longer than the average sentence served in California for murder. But at a 10-day special parole board hearing, some of his fellow prisoners testified Mr. Sirhan had threatened to kill Robert Kennedy's brother, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) of Massachusetts and plotted to steal nuclear weapons for Libya.

The board will hold another hearing in October to consider setting a new parole date for Mr. Sirhan.