diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/java.g b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/java.g
index e7ddf169a..32ff604e9 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/java.g
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/java.g
@@ -543,6 +543,9 @@ statement
 
 	// empty statement
 	|	s:SEMI {#s.setType(EMPTY_STAT);}
+
+	// assert statement
+	|	"assert"^ expression (COLON^ expression)? SEMI!
 	;