Malcolm X’s family files $100 million wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging cover-up of his murder

The family of Malcolm X, the black resistance leader who was assassinated in 1965, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the US government, they announced Friday.

Ilyasa Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, who represented her family at a press conference in New York, and her lawyers say they have found new evidence they believe will prove that The NYPD and the FBI conspired to kill Malcolm X.

“We fought primarily for our mother, who was here,” Ilyasa Shabazz said of Betty Shabazz, who died in 1997, from the site of the former Audubon Ballroom where her father was killed. “My mother was pregnant when she came here to see her husband perform; someone she just completely admired, and to witness this horrific murder of her husband…”

Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965 at the age of 39. In total, he was shot 21 times by a group of men in front of his wife and daughters.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said the lawsuit alleges that authorities engaged in a decades-long cover-up that denied Malcolm X and his family justice. The lawsuit provides for prosecution for the damage caused by the alleged illegal and unconstitutional actions of these institutions and persons.

According to the complaint, Mustafa Hassan, a witness to the assassination of Malcolm X, said that as he and others tried to apprehend one of the alleged shooters, he thought NYPD officers at the scene were trying to help the shooter escape.

Lawyers representing the family said authorities never bothered to take a statement from Hasan, even though it was allegedly clear he was present at the time of the murder, implying that law enforcement deliberately neglected to conduct a proper investigation.

The attorneys also say they provided sworn testimony from two of Malcolm X’s former personal bodyguards. According to lawyers, they were allegedly captured and imprisoned by an undercover NYPD officer a week before Malcolm X’s death to ensure the assassination was a success.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for a statement.

Family lawyers said there were nine FBI informants in the room the day Malcolm X was killed. According to lawyers, one of the shooters had close ties to the FBI and was favored by authorities after the murder.

The lawyers reported that a special agent of the New York FBI sent a letter to J. to Edgar Hoover, then FBI director, in December 1964 calling for increased surveillance of Malcolm X because the black resistance activist was allegedly intent on oppressing black Americans. transferred to the UN. About two months later, Malcolm X was assassinated.

According to The Washington PostThe FBI’s COINTELPRO, short for Counter Intelligence Program, operated in secret for decades as investigators tracked organizations and individuals they deemed a threat to American interests. Targets of the program included civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and former Illinois Black Panther Party Vice Chairman Fred Hampton.

The FBI did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for a statement.

Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam were initially convicted of the assassination of Malcolm X, but later acquitted of the 1965 murder. They received a A settlement of $36 million in October 2022 after lawsuits were filed on their behalf against the city and state of New York in 2021.

New York City agreed to pay $26 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of Aziz, as well as Islam, who was posthumously acquitted of murder. Meanwhile, New York State also agreed to pay an additional $10 million.

“I am grateful on behalf of my sisters,” said Ilyasa Shabazz. “To stand here with a competent, ethical group of experts, legal experts as we seek justice for our father’s murder.”

ABC News’ Dina Zarou contributed to this report.