36 million dollars will be paid to the two acquitted
Two African-American men who served more than 20 years in prison for the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X and are set to be released in 2021 will receive $36 million from New York City and state.
Muhammad Aziz on November 18, 2021 in New York.
AFP
“The tragedy of Malcolm X’s murder was felt around the world and led to the conviction and imprisonment of two young, innocent black men in the United States,” AFP’s attorney David Shanis said in an email. . A representative of the family of Muhammad Aziz, 84, and Khalil Islam, who died in 2009, said, “This injustice has now been recognized and a modest step has been taken to correct it.”
The attorney confirmed that New York City will pay $26 million to the two men and their families. New York State will pay them five million dollars each, or a total of $36 million, according to figures disclosed by the “New York Times” on Sunday.
Last November, the New York State Supreme Court ruled that M.M. Aziz and Islam call it a “failure of justice,” a conviction for the assassination of black icon Malcolm X in Harlem on February 21, 1965, half a century ago.
Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, who served 42 years between them, have always maintained their innocence. A third defendant, Mujahid Abdul Halim, confessed to shooting Malcolm X at the time and acquitted two of his co-defendants, but it was not until 2020 that the file was reopened by a New York judge.
AFP
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