A $100m (£79m) lawsuit has been filed against the CIA, the FBI and the New York Police Department (NYPD), who are accused of being involved in the 1965 assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X.

The case, which was filed in federal court in ManhattanNew York, claims the agencies were aware of the assassination, were complicit in the plot and failed to stop the killing.

The lawsuit was brought by Malcolm X’s three daughters along with his estate.

NYPD and CIA have yet to respond to the claims, while the FBI said it was “standard practice” not to comment on litigation.

Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the US Department of Justice, which is also included in the suit, declined to comment.

Malcolm X was 39 years old when he was shot dead on stage on February 21, 1965 by three gunmen as he prepared to speak at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan.

At a press conference in New York on Friday to announce details of the trial, attorney Benjamin Crump said: “The government’s fingerprints are all over the assassination of Malcolm X.

“We think we have the evidence to prove that.”

For decades, questions have arisen as to who was behind his murder.

Malcolm X rose to prominence as the national spokesman for the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim group that advocated black separatism.

He broke with the group in 1964 and moderated some of his earlier views on racial separation, which angered members of the Nation of Islam and led to death threats.

Three men were convicted of his murder, but two of them were cleared in 2021 after investigators took a fresh look at the case. They concluded that some evidence was shocking and the authorities withheld some information.

In the process, which began its trial in 2023the NYPD allegedly coordinated with federal law enforcement agencies to arrest the activist’s security guards days before the assassination.

He also claims that police were intentionally removed from the ballroom where Malcolm X was killed and that federal agencies had personnel, including undercover agents, at the scene but failed to protect him.

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The suit goes on to allege a “corrupt, illegal and unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement and “ruthless killers … that was concealed, condoned, protected and actively facilitated by government agents.”

Referring to Malcolm X’s family, the lawsuit states, “They did not know who killed Malcolm X, why he was killed, the level of orchestration by the NYPD, FBI and CIA, the identity of the government agents who conspired to ensure his death, or who. they fraudulently covered their role”.