23 Feb 2023; MEMO: One of the daughters of Malcolm X (Malik El-Shabazz), Dr Ilyasah Shabazz is planning to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the FBI, CIA, New York City Police Department (NYPD) and other agencies over his assassination.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, commemorating the 58th anniversary of the influential African-American civil rights leader at the Malcolm X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Centre (Shabazz Centre), Shabazz and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump announced their "formal notice" of the legal complaint against the city of New York, the state of New York, NYPD, the district attorney's office and various federal agencies for $100 million, alleging that the entities "had factual evidence and exculpatory evidence that they fraudulently concealed from the men who were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of Malcolm X."
Shabazz, who was just two years old when she witnessed her 39-year-old father being gunned down by three men belonging to the Nation of Islam (NOI) group while delivering a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City, which now forms part of the Shabazz Centre, told reporters: "For years our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder, and we'd like our father to receive the justice that he deserves."
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"It is our hope that litigation of this case will finally provide some unanswered questions. We want justice served for our father."
Malcolm X's killing has long-believed to have been a conspiracy hatched by the US government and the case has never been reopened. In 2021, a state Supreme Court judge officially exonerated two of the three men who had been convicted and incarcerated over the 1965 murder. Last year, New York City agreed to settle lawsuits filed by both men, paying $26 million for their wrongful convictions, while the state of New York paid an additional $10 million.
At the conference, lawyer Crump said: "The rhetorical question is this: if the government compensated the two gentlemen that were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of Malcolm X with tens of millions of dollars, then what is to be the compensation for the daughters who suffered the most from the assassination of Malcolm X?"
"We intend to have vigorous litigation of this matter, to have discovery, to be able to take depositions of the individuals who are still alive, 58 years later, to make sure that some measure of justice can be given to Malcolm X's daughters," Crump said, later adding, "The truth of what happened and who was involved has always been critical."
