ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Members of St. Petersburg’s Uhuru movement spoke publicly for the first time since being indicted on federal charges of conspiring to covertly sow discord, spread Russian propaganda and interfere in U.S. elections.
Leaders of the movement blasted the justice department and asked for public support in what they characterized as a violation of their free speech.
“In every instance, it’s been a matter of free speech,” Uhuru Chairman Omali Yeshitela said.
Calling themselves the Uhuru three, those indicted – Yeshitela, Penny Hess, and Jesse Nevel, all members of the Uhuru organization and affiliates – lashed out at federal prosecutors.
They asked the public to get behind them and fund their defense.
“That’s what we are talking about. That’s what this is about,” Yeshitela said. “Notwithstanding press releases that you get from the justice department. Free speech.”
“These indictments have no basis in reality, but this is how this government has attacked African people, Black people, who struggle for freedom, and self-determination,” Hess said.
“We are not guilty of the absurd charges that we are Russian spies deployed by the Kremlin, to disrupt the St. Pete local elections,” Nevel added.
It was the first time the three had spoken since last month’s federal indictment accusing them of working with Russian operative Aleksandr Ionov. All part of a covert effort, according to prosecutors, to sow discord, promote Russian viewpoints and influence elections.
Prosecutors who described the case as one of the most blatant and egregious violations they’d seen offered no additional comments beyond the case they laid out three weeks ago, citing an ongoing investigation.
Uhuru Chairman Yeshitela said the indictment was the culmination of a decades-long effort to silence him and the Uhuru movement.
“And free speech has to be afforded to Black people. If it is not afforded to us, then there can be no free speech for anybody, and that’s something that everybody should understand because the assault on free speech, the assault on basic democratic principles is one that’s always made against someone or some group that is assumed to be unpopular,” Yeshitela said.
Many of the legal issues might have been avoided if those indicted had provided prior notification to the Attorney General that they were working with Ionov, as is required by law under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Asked whether he regrets not doing so, Yeshitela said if the government knew they were violating the law they should have told them before it came to this.
Those indicted are due back in federal court on May 12. A trial date is set for July 3.