Jaan Laaman

Jaan Karl Laaman grew up in Roxbury, MA and Buffalo, NY. His family emigrated to the US from Estonia when he was a child. He has a son. He is currently serving a 53 year prison sentence for his role in the bombings of United States government buildings while a member of the United Freedom Front, an American leftist group which robbed banks, bombed buildings, and murdered law enforcement officers in the 1980s [ [http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/uff.htm Case-Study: The United Freedom Front ] ] .

In the 1960s Laaman worked in Students for a Democratic Society and community organization and advocated against the Vietnam War and racism. He facilitated youth development in the Black Panther Party and the Puerto Rican Young Lords street gang.

In 1972 he was arrested and charged with bombing a Richard Nixon reelection headquarters building and a police station in New Hampshire and was sentenced to 20 years. However, he was released in 1978.

In 1979 he and Kazi Toure helped to organize the Amandla Festival of Unity to support an end to apartheid in Southern Africa, which featured musician Bob Marley.

He was eventually caught with several other members of the United Freedom Front, referred to as the Ohio 7, including leader Tom Manning in 1984. While originally charged with seditious conspiracy, Laaman was found guilty of five bombings, one attempted bombing, and criminal conspiracy, and sentenced to 53 years in prison.

In 1977 an important New Hampshire State Supreme Court case was won by Laaman.Laaman v. Helgemoe, 437 F. Supp. 269 (NH 1977). R. Helgemoe was the warden of the NH State Prison. Laaman sued to receive reading material which he was refused. (Helgemoe claimed that the material was radical, seditious, and even bomb-making instructions.) The NH court decided in favor of Laaman, and this case eventually was used as a justification for offering college level education in the NH prisons for the first time. The case has been cited for various reasons with respect to prisoners' rights in other states was well.

References