National Conference of Black Lawyers
4080 Broadway, 341
New York, NY 10032
NCBL STATEMENT CALLING FOR THE DISMISSAL OF INDICTMENT
AND ALL CHARGES AGAINST THE UHURU 3
SEPTEMBER 3, 2024
The National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) stands in solidarity with the Uhuru 3 in their defense against the fabricated charges brought by the United States government.
UHURU 3:
Chairman Omali Yeshitela
Chairperson Penny Hess
Chairperson Jesse Nevel
The NCBL will be closely monitoring the Uhuru 3 trial, which is scheduled to begin September 3, 2024, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.
The United States, through its agencies, specifically, the FBI and the Justice Department, has historically used the criminal courts and carceral systems to stifle lawful and constitutional expressions of free speech and assembly.
From as early as the 1920s, the FBI and its Counterintelligence Program have engaged in conduct to silence, neutralize, and destroy the leadership and members of various Black civil rights organizations and activist groups advocating for the human right of self-determination for Black people of African descent, Indigenous Americans, and all oppressed peoples.
Such groups and individuals include:
The Universal Negro Improvement Association
Marcus Garvey
Malcolm X
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Paul Robeson
James Baldwin
Angela Y. Davis
Ruchell Magee
The American Indian Movement
The Black Panther Party
The Black Liberation Army
Jeronimo Ji-jaga (Pratt)
Fred Hampton
Mark Clark
Bunchy Carter
John Huggins
Leonard Peltier
The Republic of New Africa
The Nation of Islam
Omali Yeshitela is the longtime chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, also known as the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, which has been based in his native St. Petersburg since its founding in 1972 (with chapters in St. Louis and Oakland).
For more than fifty (50) years, Chairman Omali has been a tenacious organizer and strident voice for Black people of African descent, continental Africans, African Diasporans, Indigenous Americans, and all oppressed peoples. He has maintained consistent leadership in the peoples’ struggle against racism, police brutality, and U.S. and European colonization, militarism, and imperialism, and for reparations.
The current Indictment against the Uhuru 3 simply represents the U.S. government’s latest and most determined effort to criminalize Omali Yeshitela’s, Penny Hess’, and Jesse Nevel’s constitutionally protected rights to dissent, protest, and assemble and operates in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. In fact, the government filed a motion with the Court requesting that the Uhuru 3 be disallowed from raising First Amendment-related arguments with respect to their defense. This motion was rightfully denied by the presiding court.
Furthermore, the NCBL expresses profound concern regarding the exercise of politicized prosecutorial discretion by federal prosecutors and law enforcement in the form of investigations, indictments, and prosecutions, including but not limited to the most recent raid upon the home of journalist Scott Ritter, the prosecution of the Cameroon Three, and the continued incarceration of the Holy Land Five over the last twenty (20) years.
These prosecutions appear not only politicized, but selective in nature, in violation of both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
These concerning actions also undermine the so-called democratic principles purportedly inherent in the rule of law in the United States and contradict standards set forth in international human rights provisions.
DISMISSAL OF INDICTMENT
The National Conference of Black Lawyers demands the dismissal of the Indictment and all charges against the Uhuru 3.
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