Malcolm X

Muhammad Aziz was arrested along with Khalil Islam after the civil rights leader was shot dead at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan on 21 February 1965.

They were sentenced to life in prison the following year. Both of them denied ever having been in the ballroom.

Their convictions were overturned 55 years later after a documentary called Who Killed Malcolm X? detailed flaws in the case against them and suggested that the real killer was William Bradley, another member of the Nation of Islam, who died in 2018.

A 22-month investigation thereafter found that evidence that could have cleared the two was withheld by the FBI and the New York police.

Mr Aziz and his lawyers had begun negotiating with the city for a settlement, but the talks broke down.

Now 84, Mr Aziz was “a US Navy veteran who served multiple tours of duty and the father of six young children” and he “was only 26 years old when he was arrested for the murder of Malcolm X”, his lawyers state in the suit. “He spent 20 years, during what should have been the prime of his life, locked in prison for a crime he did not commit. The damage done to Mr Aziz and his family was immense and irreparable.”

Eric Adams, New York’s mayor, said that the city would review the suit. He said he believed “as someone who has fought for a fairer criminal justice system for my entire career” that overturning the convictions of the two men had been “the just outcome”.