A district judge ruled on Monday that three members of the Florida-based Uhuru Movement will face probation but no jail time for being found guilty of conspiring to act as foreign agents of Russia, a conviction that came as a result of the group being targeted by the federal government for their political views.
Omali Yeshitela, founder of the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement (APSP), and two other members of the group, known as the “Uhuru 3,” were indicted by the US Justice Department over their contacts with a Russian NGO, the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR).
The allegation was that the AGMR was recruiting Americans to spread Russian propaganda on behalf of Russian intelligence. The DOJ targeted the Uhuru 3 by using the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), claiming they failed to register under the law while acting as agents of the Russian government.
Yeshitela and the other members denied they were acting as Russian agents and said it was clear they were being targeted for their political speech. The APSP has denounced US involvement in Ukraine and expressed support for Russia, but the group has spoken out against US foreign policy since it was founded in 1972. The APSP also has a long history of working with other groups around the world.
In September, a judge ruled that the Uhuru 3 were not guilty of failing to register as foreign agents but found them guilty of conspiring to act as foreign agents without notifying the attorney general.
Prosecutors were still seeking prison time for the Uhuru 3, but District Judge William Jung sentenced them to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service. “If not for the requirement to register as a foreign agent, everything in the indictment would be legal and protected speech,” Jung said.
Under FARA laws, the Uhuru 3 could have faced up to five years in prison and a $250,00 fine.
“If you listen to what the judge had to say, he said what our lawyers have been saying all along,” Yeshitela told a crowd of supporters outside the courthouse. “Our lawyers have said that we shouldn’t be here. Our lawyers have said that even if this thing goes to trial, it’s an assault, a major assault on the First Amendment.”
According to a defense campaign for the Uhuru 3, the group will appeal the conspiracy conviction and will work to oppose foreign agent laws. “It is a precedent-setting case, the first time a foreign agent law has ever been used to target pure political speech. The Hands Off Uhuru! Fightback Coalition is launching a campaign for the repeal of the foreign agent laws,” the defense campaign said.
