'Bad deeds': Malcolm X's family sues US agencies for murder | Human Rights Issues

The three daughters of Malcolm X, the star of black development and civil rights in the United States, accused the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the New York Police Department (NYPD) of being responsible. for the assassination of his father in 1965.

On Friday, the family filed a $100m wrongful-death lawsuit against the three entities.

The legal action is the latest development in the decades-long controversy over the assassination of Malcolm X, which has raised many questions but few answers.

He was shot and killed in February 1965, when gunmen opened fire on the 39-year-old shortly after he began speaking at an event in New York's Harlem neighborhood.

Friday's lawsuit alleges a “corrupt, illegal, unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement and “brutal killers” that allowed the killings.

The relationship between government agencies and the killers “went on for years and was concealed, rewarded, protected and facilitated by government agents”, the lawsuit said.

The case also says that government agencies took many negative steps that allowed this incident to happen.

The NYPD, coordinating with law enforcement, arrested Malcolm X's security detail just days before the assassination. The police force also deliberately removed officers from inside the ballroom, according to the suit.

In addition, the court says, government agencies had private workers in the ballroom during the attack, but the police failed to intervene.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, human rights lawyer Ben Crump summed up what the family said.

“We believe they are all conspiring to kill Malcolm X, one of the greatest thought leaders of the 20th century,” Crump said.

He also added that he hopes that the law enforcement will study this case “and learn all the bad deeds done by the predecessors and try to correct these historical mistakes”.

The CIA and FBI did not comment on the case. The NYPD, meanwhile, has previously said it does not comment on legal proceedings.

Decades of speculation

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. He first came to prominence as a national spokesman for the Nation of Islam, changing his name to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz later in life.

His messages of Black revolution drew the attention of federal intelligence agencies, and he was closely monitored throughout his work as an activist and public figure.

Eventually, he broke away from the Nation of Islam and became closer to the mainstream human rights movement. After his murder, three men were arrested and found guilty of murder.

In 2020, then-Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance announced a review of the initial investigation into the assassination of Malcolm X, which has long attracted historians and amateur sleuths.

Two years later, two of the three men convicted – Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam – were acquitted after an investigation found that prosecutors, the FBI and the NYPD had withheld evidence that could have exonerated them.

The conviction of the third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, was not overturned.

Prosecutors have maintained that the trio – all members of the Nation of Islam – killed Malcolm X in revenge for his split from the group a year ago.

The update did not identify the actual killer or reveal a broader collusion between the attackers and the government.

However, it drew attention to the fact that law enforcement knew that the Nation of Islam was targeting Malcolm X after they bombed his house a week before his assassination.

It also revealed, as stated in Friday's trial, that the authorities did not disclose the presence of undercover agents during the attack.

In addition, NYPD files showed a New York Daily News reporter received a tip about the killing shortly before it happened.

The lawsuit filed Friday said Malcolm X's family suffered “unknown pain” in the decades after his murder.

“They did not know who killed Malcolm X, why he was killed, the extent of the NYPD, FBI and CIA orchestration, who the government agents were who conspired to ensure his death, or who acted fraudulently,” the lawsuit said. said.

“The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense and irreparable.”