The leaders of four Black liberation groups were convicted on Thursday for conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents, but dodged the most serious charge: acting as Russian nationals in the U.S. to spread their propaganda in 2016.
Outside of the courthouse, 82-year-old Omali Yeshitela praised the jury’s verdict, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“The most important thing is they were unable to convict us of working for anybody except Black people,” Yeshitela said at a news conference. “I am willing to be charged and found guilty of working for Black people.”
Supporters raised fists and again shouted “Uhuru! – the Swahili word for “freedom,” according to the Times.
Yeshitela called the defense attorneys the “legal dream team that was a nightmare for the prosecution.”
They argued that despite the defendants’ connections to a Russian organization, the actions taken by the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement were aligned with what they have advocated for decades, according to the Associated Press.
They are all affiliated with Yeshitela’s African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement.
Yeshitela, Penny Hess, Jesse Nevel, and Augustus Claudius Romain Jr. weren’t accused of interfering with the 2016 election. According to evidence presented at trial, from at least May 2015 until July 2022, Yeshitela, Hess, and Nevel agreed to act on behalf of the Russian government within the United States. Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, was the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization headquartered in Moscow, and funded by the Russian government.
Hess, 78, is chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, Nevel, 34, chairman of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, and Romain, 38, is leader of the Black Hammer Party.
For nearly 60 years, the U.S. government has viewed Black-led political organizations such as the Black Panther Party, Black Lives Matter, and Yeshitela’s African People’s Socialist Party as threats to democracy. Those organizations originated, in part, to provide resources and education, fight for reparations for Black Americans, and protect their Black and brown communities from police brutality and other forms of violence.