A former member of the Nation of Islam who was exonerated in the assassination of Malcolm X filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday in a case that could shed new light on the F.B.I.’s role in one of the most notorious murders of the civil rights era. The lawsuit brought by the man, Muhammad A. Aziz, who spent more than 20 years in prison and was cleared of the murder in 2021, accuses the F.B.I. of hiding evidence that suggested he played no role in the 1965 death of Malcolm X, a leading figure in the historic social movement to empower disenfranchised Black Americans. Mr. Aziz’s suit, which names at least 19 bureau officials and seeks $40 million in damages, claims top officials, including J. Edgar Hoover, engaged in a “pattern and practice” of “causing miscarriages of justice.” Mr. Hoover, who is known to have ordered the surveillance and harassment of leaders of the civil rights movement, led the bureau for nearly half a century until his death in 1972. A companion lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estate of Khalil Islam, who was also convicted of the crime and died in 2009, more than a decade before his exoneration.

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Persons: Malcolm X, Muhammad A, Aziz, Aziz’s, J, Edgar Hoover, ” Mr, Hoover, Khalil Islam Organizations: Black Locations: Islam