from RT
Four US black rights activists have been convicted of conspiring to
act as unregistered Russian agents, the Justice Department has
announced. They have been acquitted, however, 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 longer-running US legal proceedings against Russian
human rights activist Aleksandr Ionov, who heads the Russian
Anti-Globalization Movement. According to prosecutors, the four
defendants carried out actions in the US between 2015 and 2022 on behalf
of the Russian government and received money and support from Ionov,
who was allegedly in contact with Russian intelligence.
Yeshitela,
Hess, and Nevel had also been charged with the more serious crime of
acting as agents of a foreign government, although jurors cleared them
of those charges.
The Justice Department claimed that the
Americans all knew 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
defends the rights of African people. They include 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, claimed that the government had prosecuted the accused simply for their pro-Russian views.
“This case has always been about free speech,” Hess’ attorney, Leonard Goodman, told the AFP news agency...
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