"Assata Shakur, a Black American liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba, has died at the age of 78 after decades in exile, her family and Cuban officials said. Shakur, who was born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, died on Thursday due to health conditions and advanced age, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday."
"One of Shakur's fellow BLA companions died in the shootout, while the third, Sundiata Acoli, served almost 50 years in prison before being granted parole in 2022. In early November 1979, Shakur's colleagues from the BLA, a Marxist-Leninist organisation that separated from the Black Panther Party, posed as visitors and broke her out of Clinton Correctional Facility for women."
Assata Shakur, born Joanne Deborah Chesimard, died at 78 from health conditions and advanced age, Cuban officials said. Her daughter Kakuya Shakur confirmed the death and expressed profound loss. Shakur was a former Black Liberation Army member convicted in 1977 of first-degree murder for the killing of state trooper Werner Foerster during a 1973 traffic-stop shootout; she always maintained she had her hands raised. The FBI placed her on its most-wanted terrorist list and offered a $2m reward. She escaped a US prison in 1979 after allies posed as visitors and later emerged in Cuba, where she received political asylum.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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