The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in jail
Four US black rights activists have been found guilty of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents, the Justice Department has announced. However, they were acquitted of a more serious charge of acting as agents of a foreign government.
A Florida jury found four defendants – Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess, Jesse Nevel, and Augustus C. Romain Jr. – guilty “of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government,” the Justice Department said on Thursday.
“Each defendant faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set,” it added.
The trial was part of a larger legal case against Russian human rights activist Aleksandr Ionov, who leads the Russian Anti-Globalization Movement. Prosecutors alleged that the four defendants worked on behalf of the Russian government in the US between 2015 and 2022, receiving money and support from Ionov, who was reportedly in contact with Russian intelligence.
Yeshitela, Hess, and Nevel had also been accused of the more serious crime of acting as agents of a foreign government, but the jury cleared them of those charges.
The Justice Department claimed that the Americans were aware that Ionov, who has also been indicted in the US in connection with the case but is not under arrest, worked for the Russian government.
All four of those convicted are or were affiliated with the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement, which advocates for the rights of African people. This includes the movement’s 82-year-old leader, Yeshitela, as well as members Hess, 78 and Nevel, 34. Former member Romain, 38, founded the Atlanta-based Black Hammer Party in 2018.
The defense, meanwhile, argued that the government had prosecuted the accused simply because of their pro-Russian views.
“This case has always been about free speech,” Hess’ attorney, Leonard Goodman, told the AFP news agency.
In an interview with RT last week, Ionov said that the US government had misused its foreign agents laws due to a lack of evidence.
“Over two years, our counterparts have been unable to find any evidence” and used “the entire list of restrictions and limitations that could be imposed,” he claimed.
Yeshitela, speaking to a crowd outside the courthouse after the trial, said it was important that “they were unable to convict us of working for anybody except black people.” He emphasized that he was “willing to be charged and found guilty of working for black people.”
The defense pointed out that none of the 12 jurors were black. After a black woman was removed from the original jury in the second week of the trial, the judge denied the defense’s request to replace her with an alternate black juror.