FBI Trashed Home Of Elderly Black Activist Accused Of Aiding Russia - Ionov

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th July, 2023) The FBI used flashbangs and armored vehicles to storm the St. Louis, Missouri home of African-American activist Omali Yeshitela, busting doors and shattering windows in a pre-dawn raid last July to capture the 81-year-old, Russian activist Alexander Ionov told Sputnik.

The founder of the African People's Socialist Party (APSP) was charged alongside three fellow activists with conspiring with Ionov, the president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), to "act as agents of Russia in the United States."

"At five o'clock in the morning, an army of FBI, Swat teams � hundreds of agents � pulled up at the APSP office and cordoned off the entire neighborhood, like Osama bin Laden and al-Baghdadi were inside," Ionov told Sputnik in an interview.

"Omali is 81 years old and his wife is in her 70s. FBI SWAT teams arrived on two armored vehicles.

They deployed drones and busted doors and windows and threw flashbangs. All of this to get to two elderly people," the Russian activist said.

The two were tackled to the floor and then led out into the street where they stood in shackles for hours. A minor was shot in the head and died during the raid, Ionov said. Three other suspects were released on bail. The Russian activist argued that Omali faces a lengthy prison term because of his political convictions.

The US Department of Justice has offered a $10 million reward for evidence of meddling by Ionov or his alleged APSP associates. The indictment claims that Ionov helped fund a protest tour in 2016 in support of a petition criticizing the "genocide" of African people in the United States and directed the political campaign of a candidate for local office in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2019.