MEXICO CITY - Two men arrested in the fatal beating of the grandson of US civil rights activist Malcolm X were sent to prison on Saturday to await trial, a Mexico City court spokesman said.

David Hernandez and Manuel Perez, waiters at the Palace nightclub near Mexico City's popular Garibaldi Square, face charges of murder and robbery, the official said.

Malcolm Shabazz, who police have said was 29, died May 9 at the Palace after a dispute over a $1,200 bill.Hernandez and Perez were arrested on Monday.

Shabazz, who was convicted of manslaughter as a 12-year-old for setting a fire that killed his grandmother and went to prison as an adult for attempted robbery, was in Mexico City to visit Miguel Suarez, an immigration activist who was recently deported from the United States. Shabazz  

On the night of May 8 Shabazz and Suarez visited the run-down area around Plaza Garibaldi, a popular tourist area where Mariachi music groups play on the streets amid seedy strip clubs, dive bars and bordellos.

Despite its proximity to the city's grand colonial center, the area is infamous for petty crime.

Malcolm X was a civil rights activist and leader of the black Muslim movement in the United States. He was shot to death before a speaking appearance in New York City in 1965.