A Florida judge will sentence three St. Louis activists on conspiracy charges on Monday, ending a yearslong saga that began with an FBI raid in 2022.
The “Uhuru Three” include African People's Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela and Chair Penny Joanne Hess as well as Jesse Nevel, chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. The three were convicted of conspiracy to act as unregistered agents of Russia. Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel face up to five years in prison.
The three were indicted last year on charges of acting as illegal agents of the Russian government without notifying the U.S. attorney general, a charge a jury acquitted them of.
Lawyers for the three criticized the initial indictment, arguing their free speech was being targeted.
“[The] only thing we did was engage in speaking about the freedom of Black people and our opinions, about the war, the Russia/Ukraine issue,” Yeshitela said. “It continues to be a matter of freedom of speech and the rights of all the people to be able to do that. It would be a terrible situation if that right to speak was taken away.”
The indictment alleges that Russian national Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov created the Anti Globalization Movement of Russia, a Moscow-based group run by members of the Russian government to push pro-Russian propaganda and influence Americans through groups including the African People’s Socialist Party. It also alleges that Yeshitela went to Russia and was invited and paid for by Ionov and tried to push pro-Russian talking points and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In 2023, Yeshitela denied taking money from the Russian government. Penny Joanne Hess’ attorney Leonard Goodman has filed a motion to acquit the three or grant them a new trial.
The African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, which aim to promote Black empowerment, have ties in St. Louis, Atlanta, Georgia and St. Petersburg, Florida. The FBI raided the Uhuru Center in south St. Louis and the party’s St. Petersburg office in 2022.
The group has gained attention in the St. Louis area over the past couple of years by organizing marches for reparations for African Americans and raising almost $130,000 to build a basketball court in the city’s Fairground neighborhood in 2022.
Earlier this year, members of the African People’s Education and Defense Fund, which is tied to the party, applied for a permit to open the Uhuru Bakery and Cafe in the city’s College Hill neighborhood. The city’s Board of Public Service denied the conditional use permit but will hold a hearing on the issue in February.
“We think it would be important to deal with bringing the bakery/cafe to a location in St. Louis that's been characterized as the food desert,” Yeshitela said. “It doesn't make sense to us that that should even be a question.”
