Malcolm X’s family plan to sue FBI, CIA and New York police force over his assassination

22 February 2023, 14:13

The family of murdered black civil rights activist Malcolm X have announced an $100 million lawsuit accusing the FBI, CIA and New York police of fraudulently concealing evidence related to his assassination.

The daughter of Malcolm X, has announced she is suing the New York City Police Department and other federal agencies accusing them of concealing evidence.

She added that they had "conspired to and executed their plan to assassinate Malcolm X".

Ilyasah Shabazz, now 60, was two years old when she watched armed men fatally shoot her father 21 times.

She announced the planned lawsuit at the former Audubon Ballroom in upper Manhattan, the site where her father was murdered 58 years ago, which has now been converted into a memorial site.

Mrs Shabazz said: "For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder."

Malcolm X became a prominent figure as a human rights activist during the civil rights movement and the national spokesman of the Nation of Islam - an African-American Muslim group that embraced black separatism.

After breaking away from the group in 1964, he angered members of the Nation of Islam by diluting some of his more controversial views on racial separation.

Malcolm X claimed to be receiving death threats from the Nation of Islam, who he said were trying to kill him.

Three members of the Nation of Islam, Muhammad Abdul Aziz, Khalil Islam and Thomas Hagan, were convicted of his murder on 21 February 1965. Many of those who had surrounded Malcolm X believed that government agencies were aware of the assassination plan.

However, Aziz and Islam were exonerated after New York's attorney general found that prosecutors had withheld evidence that would have likely cleared them of the murder. The family of the men won $26m from New York City and $10m from New York state after a successful law suit.

"I regret that this court cannot undo the serious miscarriage of justice," said Judge Ellen Biben at a court hearing in Nov. 2021.

"There can be no question that this is a case that cries out for fundamental justice."

The Shabazz family's lawyer, Ben Crump, said ever since his death “there has been speculation as to who was involved in the assassination of Malcolm X”.

He cited the 2021 exonerations and said government agencies “had factual evidence, exculpatory evidence that they fraudulently concealed from the men who were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of Malcolm X”.

Crump confirmed that he believed that government agencies conspired to assassinate Malcolm X, adding: "They infiltrated many civil rights organisations.”