Transcript of Malcolm X’s family sues FBI, CIA and NYPD over his murder | BBC News

Relatives of the black civil rights leader, Malcolm X, are suing US law enforcement agencies for complicity in his assassination six decades ago. They claimed the CIA, the FBI, and the New York Police Department were aware of a plot to assassinate him, but did nothing to stop it. The family is seeking $100 million in damages. Three men were convicted over his death, but two were exonerated more than 50 years later when the case was reexamined. Raymond Hamlin is a lawyer acting for the family.

So you ask yourself this last question, why would the government prosecute two individuals knowing those individuals had no involvement in the assassination? What was it that our government What was it that the city was trying to protect?

Our correspondent, Ron Bridge, is following developments from Washington. He gave me this update.

Malcolm X was a charismatic but controversial figure within the civil rights movement of the 1960s in the United States. He was the chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam, to start off with, a black nationalist movement. He became famous for saying that black people should use whatever means necessary to claim back their civil rights, including violence. But he split from the Nation of Islam. He went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and came back with a very different viewpoints. He moderated his earlier views. That had created a lot of tension with the Nation of Islam, and he received death threats to his life, and he feared for his own safety when he returned to the United States. Then he was giving a speech at a ballroom in New York when he was assassinated. He was shot dead in front of several hundred people. The allegation now is that there was complicity by the authorities in Malcolm X's death. This all comes off the back of a letter which was allegedly written by a New York police officer before he died in 2020, where he said he had infiltrated Malcolm X's organization and got his security team to commit offenses so that they could be arrested by the New York police before Malcolm X gave that speech.

Then the allegation is also that there were undercover officers in the ballroom who did nothing to protect Malcolm X and allowed that shooting to go ahead. There has always been controversy over whether the authorities were complicit in his death or not. I think this court case, really, one of the things they're hoping to do is prize out that information to get a full accounting of what happened and also to get reparations for the family of Malcolm X.

Yeah, so take us through the timeline now of what happens next.

Well, I mean, American court cases can take some time. I mean, this is a civil suit that they are bringing against the FBI, the CIA, and the New York Police Department. That case will now have to make its way through the courts. At the moment, though, the authorities involved are all making no comment on the case. At the moment, we have this headline that the case has been filed, this unlawful death suit has been filed, and now we'll wait for that to grind its way through the American legal system, really.

Robin Bridge there.