The only man to have admitted his role in the killing of controversial US black leader Malcolm X has been released from prison on parole.

Thomas Hagan, 69, was released from a New York jail 45 years after the assassination, officials confirmed.

Hagan said he was one of three men who shot Malcolm X as he began a speech at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in 1965.

But he has insisted that the two men who were convicted with him were not involved.

They maintained their innocence and were paroled in the 1980s.