OMALI YESHITELA: Chairman of U.S.-based Black empowerment organization faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy and foreign agent registration charges. PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA

Tampa, Fla. (AP) — Trial began Tuesday in Florida for four activists accused of illegally acting as Russian agents to help the Kremlin sow political discord and interfere in U.S. elections.

All four are or were affiliated with the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement, which has locations in St. Petersburg, Florida, and St. Louis. Among those charged is Omali Yeshitela, the 82-year-old chairman of the U.S.based organization focused on Black empowerment and the effort to obtain reparations for slavery and what it considers the past genocide of Africans.

In an opening statement, Yeshitela attorney Ade Griffin said the group shared many goals of a Russian organization called the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia but was not acting under control of that nation’s government.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that simply is not true," Griffin told a racially mixed jury. "This is a case about censorship."

Yeshitela and two others face charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and failing to register with the Justice Department as agents of a foreign government. The fourth defendant, who later founded a separate group in Atlanta called Black Hammer, faces only the conspiracy charge. They have all pleaded not guilty. Three Russians, two of whom prosecutors say are Russian intelligence agents, are also charged in the case but have not been arrested.

Although there are some echoes of claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, U.S. District Judge William Jung said those issues are not part of this case.

"This trial will not address Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election," Jung said in an order dated Monday. In his opening statement, Justice Department attorney Menno Goedman said the group’s members acted under Russian direction to stage protests in 2016 claiming Black people have been victims of genocide in the U.S. and took other actions for the following six years that would benefit Russia, including opposition to U.S. policy in the Ukraine war.

"This is about dividing Americans, dividing communities, turning neighbor against neighbor," Goedman told jurors. "The defendants acted at the direction of the Russian government to sow division right here in the U.S."

That included support for a St. Petersburg City Council candidate in 2019 that the Russians claimed to "supervise," according to the criminal indictment. The candidate lost that race and has not been charged in the case.

Much of the alleged cooperation involved support for Russian’s invasion of Ukraine. In March 2022, Yeshitela held a news conference in which he said the "African People’s Socialist Party calls for unity with Russia in its defensive war in Ukraine against the world colonial powers." He also called for the independence of the Russian-occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

The defense attorneys, however, said despite their connections to the Russian organization, the actions taken by the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement were aligned precisely with what they have advocated for more than 50 years. Yeshitela founded the organization in 1972 as a Black empowerment group opposed to vestiges of colonialism around the world.

"They shared some common beliefs," said attorney Leonard Goodman, who represents defendant Penny Hess. "That makes them threatening."

Yeshitela, Hess and fellow defendant Jesse Nevel face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the conspiracy and foreign agent registration charge. The fourth defendant, Augustus Romain, could get a maximum of five years if convicted of the registration count.

The trial is expected to last up to four weeks.