Assata Shakur, black Liberation activist exiled in Cuba, dies at 78

She fled to Cuba after being convicted in the killing of a police officer but denied the shooting.

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Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, died on Thursday of unspecified health conditions and "advanced age", Cuba's foreign affairs ministry said in a statement on Friday.

She had been on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list for years after she escaped in 1979 from a New Jersey women's prison, where she was serving a life sentence following her murder conviction in a shoot-out that killed a New Jersey state trooper and a fellow activists.

Shakur maintained her innocence and in 1984 reappeared in Cuba, where she was granted asylum by former President Fidel Castro.

Shakur was born JoAnne Deborah Byron in July 1947 in New York City and was raised between the city and Wilmington, North Carolina. She was the step-aunt and godmother of the late rapper Tupac Shakur.