US Senator Robert F Kennedy’s assassin has been recommended for parole after two of Kennedy’s sons spoke in favour of Sirhan Sirhan’s release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars.

The decision was a major victory for the 77-year-old Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, though it does not assure his release.

The ruling by the two-person panel on Friday at Sirhan’s 16th parole hearing will be reviewed during the next 90 days by the California Parole Board’s staff. Then, it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it.

Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said he was moved to tears by Sirhan’s remorse and he should be released if he is not a threat to others.

“I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr Sirhan face to face,” he said at Sirhan’s parole hearing. “I think I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.”

Sirhan, who was in a blue prison uniform with a paper towel folded like a handkerchief and tucked into his pocket, smiled as Kennedy spoke.

Six of Kennedy’s nine surviving children said they were shocked by the vote and urged Governor Gavin Newsom to reverse the parole board’s decision and keep Sirhan behind bars.

“He took our father from our family and he took him from America,” the six siblings wrote in a statement late Friday. “We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.”

Some of Kennedy’s children and others have called for a reinvestigation of the killing, believing there was a second shooter who got away.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spoken in favour of Sirhan’s release in the past, wrote in favour of paroling Sirhan.

He said in a letter submitted to the board that he met Sirhan in prison and was moved after he “wept clinching my hands and asked for forgiveness”.

“I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence… I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father,” said Kennedy. (Al Jazeera)