diff --git a/org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/java5/AssertTest.java b/org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/java5/AssertTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..780b2fdb31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/java5/AssertTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2009, 2021 Mountainminds GmbH & Co. KG and Contributors
+ * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under
+ * the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+ *
+ * Contributors:
+ *    Evgeny Mandrikov - initial API and implementation
+ *
+ *******************************************************************************/
+package org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5;
+
+import org.jacoco.core.test.validation.ValidationTestBase;
+import org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5.targets.AssertTarget;
+
+/**
+ * Test of code coverage in {@link AssertTarget}.
+ */
+public class AssertTest extends ValidationTestBase {
+
+	public AssertTest() {
+		super(AssertTarget.class);
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/java5/targets/AssertTarget.java b/org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/java5/targets/AssertTarget.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..316cfc7735
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/java5/targets/AssertTarget.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2009, 2021 Mountainminds GmbH & Co. KG and Contributors
+ * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under
+ * the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+ *
+ * Contributors:
+ *    Evgeny Mandrikov - initial API and implementation
+ *
+ *******************************************************************************/
+package org.jacoco.core.test.validation.java5.targets;
+
+import static org.jacoco.core.test.validation.targets.Stubs.t;
+
+/**
+ * This target exercises assert statement.
+ */
+public class AssertTarget { // assertFullyCovered()
+
+	private AssertTarget() {
+	}
+
+	public static void main(String[] args) {
+		assert t() : "msg"; // assertPartlyCovered(1, 1)
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/org.jacoco.core.test/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/ValidationTestBase.java b/org.jacoco.core.test/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/ValidationTestBase.java
index ab8be47381..1d35126890 100644
--- a/org.jacoco.core.test/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/ValidationTestBase.java
+++ b/org.jacoco.core.test/src/org/jacoco/core/test/validation/ValidationTestBase.java
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ public void setup() throws Exception {
 
 	private ExecutionDataStore execute() throws Exception {
 		loader = new InstrumentingLoader(target);
+		loader.setDefaultAssertionStatus(true);
 		run(loader.loadClass(target.getName()));
 		return loader.collect();
 	}