Malcolm X's daughter to sue FBI, CIA and NYPD over civil rights leader's death

Family alleges government agencies conspired to assassinate leading civil rights figure in 1965

Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, announced that she intends to sue the FBI, the CIA, the New York Police Department and others over his death.

Marking the 58th anniversary of the civil rights leader's assassination, Ms Shabazz said she is seeking $100 million from the agencies, accusing them of having played a role in his killing.

Ms Shabazz was joined by her sister Qubilah Shabazz and civil rights lawyer Ben Crump on Tuesday at the Audubon Ballroom in New York, where Malcolm X was killed on February 21, 1965.

“For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light,” Ilyasah Shabazz said.

“We want justice served for our father.”

Three men were convicted in the death of Malcolm X, but two men who maintained their innocence were exonerated in 2021.

Speaking at the news conference, Mr Crump said that “there has been speculation as to who was involved in the assassination of Malcolm X” in the years since 1965.

“If anyone deserves justice [after] these decades, it is these women,” Mr Crump said.

Lawyers for the exonerated men said the 1966 trial that convicted Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam said authorities had concealed evidence that was favourable to the defence.

Mr Crump 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”.

Asked if he believed government agencies conspired to assassinate Malcolm X, Mr Crump said: “That is what we are alleging, yes. They infiltrated many civil rights organisations.”

Malcolm X rose to prominence as the national spokesman of the Nation of Islam, an Islamic and black nationalist movement. He left the organisation in 1964.

Agencies contributed to this report